Transverse loading of monofilament reinforced microcomposites: a novel fragmentation technique for measuring the fibre compressive strength

Carbon/J-polymer single fibre composite samples were tested under tensile conditions with the fibre direction perpendicular to the tensile loading axis. The Poisson ratio effect induced a compression strain field in the fibre, resulting in a fragmentation phenomenon similar to that observed in a fibre subjected to tensile loading. This observation introduces a novel technique for the measurement of the compressive strength of single fibres, calculated either from the stress at first break, or from the Weibull scale parameter obtained from the fragmentation data produced at various stress levels. The special sample loading configuration used here also provides the first measurement of the effect of the length of the fibre on its compressive strength value.