Abstract
An analytical investigation aimed at examining the mechanical behavior of pultruded polymer composites under shear loading is presented. Micromechanical models that account for the presence and shapes of inhomogeneities in composite matrix materials were developed for estimating the extensional and in-plane shear moduli, and Poisson's ratio. The inhomogeneities in composite matrices include platelet clay fillers and voids in this study. The analytical results were compared with the properties obtained by experiments. For the experiments, three different pultruded polymer composites containing clay fillers as well as E-glass fiber and vinylester resin were selected, analyzed and tested under shear loading. The effects of the volume fractions of the constituents on the mechanical properties of the composites were also investigated.
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