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This study investigated, experimentally and numerically, the fracturingbehavior of thermoset polymer structures featuring cracks and sharp u-notches.It is shown that, even for cases in which the sharpness of the notch wouldsuggest otherwise, the failure behavior of cracked and pre-notched specimens issubstantially different, the failure loads of the former configuration beingabout three times lower than the latter one. To capture this interestingbehavior a two-scale cohesive model is proposed. The model is in excellentagreement with the experimental data and its predictions allow to conclude that(a) residual plastic stresses cannot explain the very high failure loads ofnotched structures; (b) the strength of the polymer at the microscale can befrom six to ten times larger than the values measured from conventional testswhereas the fracture energy at the microscale can be about forty times lower;(c) the pre-notched specimens investigated in this work failed when the stressat the tip reached the microscale strength whereas the cracked specimens failedwhen the energy release rate reached the total fracture energy of the material.The foregoing considerations are of utmost importance for the design ofmicroelectronic devices or polymer matrix composites for which the main damagemechanisms are governed by the strength and cohesive behavior at themicroscale.

Strength and Cohesive Behavior of Thermoset Polymers at the Microscale: A Size-Effect Study