Estimate Interface Shear Stress of Woven Ceramic Matrix Composites from Hysteresis Loops

An approach to estimate the fiber/matrix interface shear stress of woven ceramic matrix composites during fatigue loading has been developed in this paper. Based on the analysis of the microstructure, the woven ceramic matrix composites were divided into four elements of 0^o warp yarns, 90^o weft yarns, matrix outside of the yarns and the open porosity. When matrix cracking and fiber/matrix interface debonding occur upon first loading to the peak stress, it is assumed that fiber slipping relative to matrix in the interface debonded region of the 0^o warp yarns is the mainly reason for the occurrence of the hysteresis loops of woven ceramic matrix composiets during unloading and subsequent reloading. The unloading interface reverse slip length and reloading interface new slip length are determined by the interface slip mechanisms. The hysteresis loops of three different cases have been derived. The hysteresis loss energy for the strain energy lost per volume during corresponding cycle is formulated in terms of the fiber/matrix interface shear stress. By comparing the experimental hysteresis loss energy with the computational values, the fiber/matrix interface shear stress of woven ceramic matrix composites corresponding to different cycles can then be derived. The theoretical results have been compared with experimental data of two different woven ceramic composites.