Experimental and numerical study of interlaminar shear property and failure mechanism of none-felt needled composites

Abstract

The none-felt needling technology improved the interlaminar peeling and in-plane tensile property of the needled fabric. Following the previous research, this paper proposed a study on the interlaminar shear property of the none-felt needled composites by using experiments and numerical methods, and compared with common felt/base cloth needled composites. Result showed that none-felt needled composites had great enhancement in interlaminar shear strength, increased by up to 108.6%. Double cohesive zone models were established to predict the mode Ⅱ interlaminar shear property of none-felt needled composites. The simulation of interlaminar shear strength and the surface strain cloud graph were well close to the experimental results. Moreover, tensile and bending properties were also characterized. The in-plane tensile strength and modulus increased by up to 21% and 20% respectively. The bending strength and modulus improved by 3%–7% and 4%–13%. The none-felt needling technology realized the simultaneous enhancement of interlaminar shear and in-plane tensile properties of needled composites, which may further broaden the application fields of needled composites.