An effective model for mechanical properties of nacre-inspired continuous fiber-reinforced laminated composites

Abstract

The rigorous organic and inorganic laminated structure of natural nacre has achieved the perfect performance of stiffness. A series of nacre-like materials made of single-fiber have been prepared, and with them, a giant amount of costly and time consuming experiments came. In this study, an effective model and nacre-inspired continuous fiber-reinforced laminated composites were developed. The numerical analysis of the elastic modulus (representation of stiffness) of the nacre-inspired continuous fiber-reinforced laminated composites were discussed. From the results, the elastic modulus along x-axis (Ex) of basalt-carbon hybrid-layer nacre-inspired continuous fiber-reinforced laminated composites were 33.667 GPa, increasing by 33.7% compared with single-basalt nacre-inspired continuous fiber-reinforced laminated composites (Ex=25.181 GPa) and decreasing by 23.3% compared with single-carbon nacre-inspired continuous fiber-reinforced laminated composites (Ex=43.916 GPa). And the increase in the Ex was much more than decreased. Furthermore, basalt-carbon hybrid-woven nacre-inspired continuous fiber-reinforced laminated composites (Ex=33.980 GPa) showed the similar properties with basalt-carbon hybrid-layer nacre-inspired continuous fiber-reinforced laminated composites (difference in Ex with 0.9%), but the former has a better isotropic performance. These results by finite element method were in accordance with the experimental results obtained by tensile tests. This work presented an effective model to evaluate the mechanical properties of composites.