Tensile failure of laminates containing an embedded wrinkle; numerical and experimental study

Supratik Mukhopadhyay*, Mike I. Jones, Stephen R. Hallett

*Corresponding author for this work

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

98 Citations (Scopus)
58 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Abstract The failure of a quasi-isotropic composite laminate containing an embedded out-of-plane fibre wrinkle defect was investigated under tension loading. Laboratory test specimens with controlled severity of fibre waviness were manufactured. Along with recording load-displacement data, high resolution camera images were taken at regular intervals which monitored the initiation and interaction of different damage mechanisms during test. Three-dimensional FE models were built following the geometry of actual test specimens. The information obtained from the tests was used to develop user material subroutines, implemented in Abaqus/Explicit as continuum damage and cohesive zone models for intra- and inter-ply failure respectively. The results of the simulations showed very good correlation with test observations in terms of failure load, location of damage initiation and interaction between different damage mechanisms for a range of waviness cases tested.

Original languageEnglish
Article number3991
Pages (from-to)219-228
Number of pages10
JournalComposites Part A: Applied Science and Manufacturing
Volume77
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 3 Aug 2015

Research Groups and Themes

  • Composites UTC

Keywords

  • A. Carbon fibres
  • B. Delamination
  • B. Fracture
  • C. Finite element analysis (FEA)

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