Effect of micromechanical properties on the critical buckling load of woven composite plate: A multiscale analysis

Abstract

Thin plate buckling is a common failure criterion in aerospace structures that occurs before the material reaches the yield limit (for metal alloys) or the first ply fails (for composites). In general, composites are widely adopted over metallic parts due to their lightweight nature with better strength quality, whereas the woven composites are chosen mainly for their multidirectional load-carrying capacity and excellent drape ability to shape complex structures over unidirectional composites. With the aid of the commercial software code Ansys, in this present study, a multiscale analysis is performed on a 16-layer quasi-isotropic symmetric woven composite plate under uniaxial compressive loading to examine the effect of microscopic parameters; namely, fiber volume fraction, yarn fiber volume fraction, yarn thickness and spacing based on twill and weave type unit cells (RVE). The current research reveals that both fiber volume fraction and yarn fiber volume fraction have a strong effect on the critical buckling load of the woven composite plates, while yarn thickness does not influence the critical buckling outcomes. In addition, choosing an appropriate value for yarn spacing can be crucial in increasing the buckling load capability of the woven composite plate.