Measurement of stress relaxation in broken fibers embedded in epoxy using Raman spectroscopy

Raman spectroscopy was used to study the stress relaxation in broken fibers in a unidirectional composite. A single-fiber model composite consisting of a high modulus PAN-based carbon fiber and an epoxy resin matrix was loaded incrementally until the fiber got broken.Then the stress profile in the broken fiber was monitored under constant overall strain for 1000 hours by determining fiber stress through the stress dependence of the 2700 cm–1 Raman band peak position. Three experiments were done at different overall strains.It was observed that the stress profile in each broken fiber changed only a little even after 1000 hours whereas matrix normal stress in the fiber direction relaxed to about a quarter of the initial value in about 200 hours. It is shown that this result does not support linear viscoelastic solutions based on perfect bonding at interface since the present experiments had interfacial debonding and matrix shear yielding around fiber breaks.