Effect of Reinforcement Architecture on Fracture of Selectively Reinforced Metallic Compact Tension Specimens

A computer-based parametric study of the effect of reinforcement architectures on fracture response of aluminum compact-tension (CT) specimens is performed. Eleven different reinforcement architectures consisting of rectangular and triangular cross-section reinforcements were evaluated. Reinforced specimens produced between 13 and 28 percent higher fracture load than achieved with the non-reinforced case. Reinforcements with blunt leading edges (rectangular reinforcements) exhibited superior performance relative to the triangular reinforcements with sharp leading edges. Relative to the rectangular reinforcements, the most important architectural feature was reinforcement thickness. At failure, the reinforcements carried between 58 and 85 percent of the load applied to the specimen, suggesting that there is considerable load transfer between the base material and the reinforcement.