Experimental determination of Through-Thickness Compression (TTC) enhancement factor for Mode II fracture energy

Xiaodong Xu*, Michael Wisnom, Xiaoyang Sun, Tamas Rev, Stephen Hallett

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticle (Academic Journal)peer-review

11 Citations (Scopus)
284 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Mode II fracture energy, GIIC, is a critical parameter for determining the propagation of delamination in composite laminates. Its value can be affected by Through-Thickness Compression (TTC) stress acting on the crack tip and here this effect has been studied using IM7/8552 carbon/epoxy laminates with cut central plies. External TTC loads were applied through bi-axial testing. Unidirectional (UD) cut-ply specimens were used to determine the TTC enhancement factor, ηG, for GIIC. A similar enhancement effect was also found in Quasi-isotropic (QI) specimens with 2 extra cut central 0° plies inserted into the layup. The TTC enhancement factor was implemented in a Finite Element Analysis (FEA) framework using cohesive interface elements, showing that the determined ηG can be successfully used to model the effect of TTC on delamination.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)66-73
Number of pages8
JournalComposites Science and Technology
Volume165
Early online date15 Jun 2018
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 8 Sept 2018

Keywords

  • B. Delamination
  • B. Fracture toughness
  • Bi-axial testing
  • C. Finite element analysis (FEA)

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