Abstract
An experimental investigation was carried out to study the effect of circular cross-holes on the failure behavior of unidirectional glass fiber reinforced with unsaturated polyester resin composites, varying cross-ply laminates that were subjected to axial tensile load. This paper deals with the effects of the circular notch and the number of plies on nominal tensile and net tensile strengths. Tensile strengths were investigated for composites with cross-ply([0/90]. [90°/0°/90°] and [0°/90°/0°].90°), orientation and varying the laminate layers with a central hole, and effects of volume fraction and number of ply on mechanical properties for un-notched (smooth) and notched specimens were also studied. The results showed that increasing the number of plies has a marginal effect on tensile strength values. The fraction of volume has significant effects and for increasing the number of plies about 9% decreases in nominal tensile strength and about 11% decrease in the net tensile strength was observed. The same results were obtained with finite element analysis.