quasi-static (0.04 MPa·√m/s) to Hopkinson bar (3×104 MPa·√m/s) tests were examined in terms of the fracture toughness and the toughening efficiency. Some important conclusions are summarized below: 1: The toughness of the nanocomposites increases with nano-rubber weight fraction. 2: The toughness of neat epoxy and 2 wt% rubber modified epoxy increases under dynamic loading due to thermal blunting. 3: The filler toughening efficiency drops with increasing loading rate. This is because increasing loading rates limit some toughening effects, such as cavitation and matrix plastic deformation, of rubber particles. Acknowledgements Y-G Miao would like to thank the Chinese Scholarship Council for supporting him to work on this project at the University of Sydney, and the financial support by National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 10932008) and the 111 project (No. B07050). H-Y Liu wishes to thank the Australian Research Council (ARC) for the support of this project through a Future Fellowship awarded to her (FT0992081, 2009-2013) tenable at the University of Sydney. Thanks are also due to Y Zeng and XS Du of the CAMT for sample preparation and helpful discussions during the various stages of this work. Use of the SHTB facility funded by the ARC LIEF (LE100100045) is much appreciated. References 1 H.-Y. Liu, G. T. Wang, Y.-W. Mai, Y. Zeng. Composites: Part B, 42( 2011) 2170–2175. 2 S. W. Koh, J. K. Kim, Y.-W. Mai. Polymer, 34(1993) 3446-3455. 3 S. Sahraoui, J. L. Lataillade, J. Pouyet, N. Skhiri. Polymer testing, 7(1987) 269-278. 4 V. M. F. Evora, A. Shukla. Materials Science and Engineering: A, 361(2003) 358-366. 5 ASTM D5045-99. Standard test methods for plane-strain fracture toughness and stain energy release rate of plastic materials; 1999. 6 Y. L. Li, K. T. Ramesh, E. S. C. Chin, Materials Science and Engineering: A, 371(2004) 359-370. 7 Y. L. Li, K. T. Ramesh, International Journal of Impact Engineering, 34(2007) 784-798. 8 Z. J. Xu, Y. L. Li, F. L. Huang, Acta Mechanica Sinica, 28(2012) 424-431. 9 J. Zhu, S. S. Hu, L. L. Wang, International Journal of Impact Engineering, 36(2009) 61-72. 10 W. F. Brown, Jr. And J. E. Srawley, Plane strain crack toughness testing of high strength metallic materials,ASTM STP 410, 1966, pp.12. 11 I. M. Low, Y.-W. Mai, Journal of Materials Science, 24(1989) 1634-1644.
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