INFLUENCE OF THE LOADING RATE AND THE CONCENTRATION 
OF AN ACTIVE DILUENT ON THE STRENGTH OF EPOXY
COMPOSITES AND MODEL ADHESIVE COMPOUNDS

Yu. A. Gorbatkina and V. I. Solodilov

UDC 620.171.2:678.01

A study has been made of the loading rate and the concentration 
of an active diluent on the shear strength of unidirectional epoxy 
glass- and carbon-fiber-reinforced plastics and the adhesion strength 
of the model compounds fiber-matrix. It has been shown that the 
values of the strength of the composites and the interface increase 
with the loading rate. As the concentration increases, the sensitivity 
to the loading rate follows a curve with a maximum in the adhesive 
compounds and it remains constant, in practice, in the composites. 
The results obtained have been employed in discussion of the mechanism 
of the process of failure of fiber-reinforced plastics.

N. N. Semenov Institute of Chemical Physics, Russian Academy 
of Sciences, Moscow, Russia; email: viva@chph.ras.ru. Translated from 
Inzhenerno-Fizicheskii Zhurnal, Vol. 76, No. 3, pp. 106-111, May-June, 
2003. Original article submitted October 4, 2002.