Fracture and failure behavior of fabric‐reinforced all‐poly(propylene) composite (Curv®)Paper presented as part of an issue containing papers from the Polymeric Materials for Automotive conference held in Bratislava, May 2005.

The in‐plane static fracture of a fabric reinforced all‐poly(propylene) (all‐PP, Curv®) composite was studied at ambient temperature using the concept of the linear elastic fracture mechanics. The apparent fracture toughness was determined on single‐edge notched tensile specimens (SEN‐T) considering the maximum load. The related values did not differ much from those determined by the resistance curve (KR) method. The crack growth, requested to construct the KR curves, was traced by the movement in the center of gravity of the cumulative amplitude of the located acoustic emission (AE) events. The quality of consolidation of the all‐PP composite was reflected by the force‐displacement curve (appearance of pop‐in), course of the cumulative AE events during loading, extension and change of the estimated damage zone during fracture. The failure behavior was studied also by fractography and is discussed. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]