• Advanced Composite Materials
• /
• v.16 no.3
• /
• pp.245-258
• /
• 2007

The single-modal Weibull model has been assessed on Tyranno ZMI Si-Zr-C-O fiber if a set of shape and scale parameters accurately reproduced the effect of the size of the diameter on strength. The tensile data of a single fiber have been divided into two expedient groups as 'small diameter' group and 'large diameter' group in deriving the parameters, which should be consistent if the Weibull model accurately reproduced the size effect. However, the derived Weibull parameters were inconsistent between the two groups. Thereby the authors have concluded that the parameters of the single-modal Weibull model are dependent on the fiber diameter, so that the model is inadequate to reproduce the strength size effect. On the other hand, Weibull parameters were found consistent between the two groups by excluding the data of 'large mirror zone' sample, which was defined as the sample around 10% mirror zone area of the fracture surface. What is more, the exclusion reduced the strength variance more drastically in the 'large diameter' group than in the 'small diameter' group, even though the 'large mirror zone' samples were found identical in the percentage between the two groups. The authors therefore conclude that diameter limitation to the 'small diameter' group level can lead to drastically less distributed strength values than the estimated strength through the Weibull scaling on the present Tyranno ZMI Si-Zr-C-O fiber.