Effect of specimen size on strength reliability of SiC/Al composite

A tensile test was carried out for SiC/Al composite specimens which have different width. A Monte Carlo simulation using finite element method was performed with changing the width of SiC/Al composite model. The size effect of composite strength and its reliability was examined and discussed. The results showed that composite strength does not appear to have large change but its reliability is improved with increasing the composite specimen width. Effect of specimen width on composite strength and its reliability is dependent on the both factors, that is, (a) the accumulating of fracture process and (b) fibre strength and its scatter of the weaker fibres in the composite. The accumulation of the fracture process is related to the fibre stress distribution in the composite.