ABSTRACT
It is apparent from this table that the elongations at break of all the fibres are two or three orders of magnitude greater than the strain at failure of the matrix and hence the matrix will usually crack long before the fibre strength is approached. This fact is the reason for the emphasis on post-cracking performance in the theoretical treatment. On the other hand, the modulus of elasticity of the fibre is generally less than five times that of the matrix and this, combined with the low fibre volume fraction, means that the modulus of the composite is not greatly different from that of the matrix.
