Strength and cohesive behavior of thermoset polymers at the microscale: A size-effect study

•The cohesive behavior at the microscale is estimated by size effect testing.•The fracturing of cracks and sharp notches is captured by a two-scale cohesive model.•The proposed model can be used to describe the structural behavior of microelectronic devices or the matrix microcraking in polymer matrix composites. This study investigated, experimentally and numerically, the fracturing behavior of thermoset polymer structures featuring cracks and sharp u-notches. It is shown that, even for cases in which the sharpness of the notch would suggest otherwise, the failure behavior of cracked and pre-notched specimens is substantially different, the failure loads of the former configuration being about three times lower than the latter one. To capture this interesting behavior a two-scale cohesive model is proposed. The model is in excellent agreement with the experimental data and its predictions allow to conclude that (a) residual plastic stresses cannot explain the very high failure loads of notched structures; (b) the strength of the polymer at the microscale can be from six to ten times larger than the values measured from conventional tests whereas the fracture energy at the microscale can be about forty times lower; (c) the pre-notched specimens investigated in this work failed when the stress at the tip reached the microscale strength whereas the cracked specimens failed when the energy release rate reached the total fracture energy of the material. The foregoing considerations are of utmost importance for the design of microelectronic devices or polymer matrix composites for which the main damage mechanisms are governed by the strength and cohesive behavior at the microscale.