The Higher Technical School of Engineering (ETSi) has awarded the Scientific Article of the Quarter Award (January-March 2025) to the work entitled "Longitudinal fiber/matrix debonds in CFRP ultra-thin plies: TT cyclic testing and numerical prediction", signed by Serafín Sánchez Carmona, Carlos Sandino de Benito, Elena Correa Montoto, María Luisa Velasco Pérez and Alberto Barroso Caro.

The award-winning article, Longitudinal fiber/matrix debonds in CFRP ultra-thin plies: TT cyclic testing and numerical prediction, presents a study of damage in cross-ply laminates of carbon fiber and epoxy resin composites, a widely used material industrially, especially in highly relevant sectors such as the aeronautical and automotive industries. This work descends to the microscopic level of the material to understand its mechanical behavior, combining experimental techniques and numerical analysis. The main objective is to obtain a correlation between the initiation and propagation of damage at the fiber/matrix level under cyclic tensile-tensile loading. Longitudinal fiber/matrix debonds, which occur in alignment with the applied load due to a phenomenon known as the "edge effect," help us understand the micromechanical behavior of the material. The numerical-experimental correlation allows estimating the energy release rate of the fiber/matrix interface in Mode I, GIc, an essential parameter to be used in numerical design tools that want to include the micromechanical reality of the composite material.

This article was published in the prestigious journal Composites Part A: Applied Science and Manufacturing in the area of ​​composite materials, whose impact factor is 8.9 in 2024 and is ranked Q1 in 2 JCR categories.

The jury of the contest has highlighted the high quality of the publications presented, underlining both the scientific level of the magazines in which they were published and the relevance of the appointments received by the different works. In this context, and after applying various bibliometric indicators, the awarded work was unanimously selected for its theoretical contribution to the field of engineering.

This recognition is part of ETSI's effort to foster and make excellence in the scientific production of its research community.