Abstract
In this work, we investigate the toughening mechanism of the rubber-modified epoxy resin. The fracture toughness($K_{IC}$) is measured using CT specimens for three kinds of rubber-modified epoxy resin with different rubber content. The damage zone and rubber particles around a crack tip of a damaged specimen just before fracture are observed by a polarization microscope and an atomic force microscope(AFM). Both the fracture energy($G_{IC}$) and the size of damage zone increase with the rubber content below l5wt%. The size of the rubber particles can be qualitatively correlated with the $G_{IC}$ and the size of damage zone. The cavitation of the rubber particles inside the damage zone is observed, which is expected to be main toughening mechanism by rubber particles. the stress which causes the cavitation of rubber particles is estimated by the Dugdale model.
