Failure mechanisms of notched laminated composites under compressive loading at room and elevated temperature.

Abstract

Understanding the mechanisms of failure of composite structures and developing mechanism based failure criteria are important considerations in designing structures made of composite materials. The compressive response of composite materials and structures has received considerable attention due to their significance in the aerospace industry and the complexity associated with compressive failure. Several competing failure mechanisms such as fiber instability, fiber/matrix interfacial failure, fiber microbuckling/kinking, delamination initiation and delamination buckling may become active in compressive loading. Environmental effect such as an elevated temperature can alter and affect these failure mechanisms. In this thesis, a micromechanics based finite element predictive model for notched strength of multidirectional laminates is presented. The in-situ shear response of the matrix, the fiber mechanical properties, the lay-up (stacking sequence) and fiber volume fraction serve as input to the model. The prediction of the model is found to match favorably with experimental data. The effect of ply angle and its influence on the failure mechanism are quantified and compared with a set of available experimental data. The present work is the <italic>first development of a non-empirical mechanics based failure prediction methodology</italic> for notched compressive strength of composite laminates. Both an experimental and an analytical study are presented herein.