Identification of Characteristic Failure Initiation Sites in Plain Weave Textile Composites

Abstract

Failure initiation locations were determined in the tows of a plain weave textile composite for a wide variety of loading conditions in an attempt to identify characteristic failure initiation sites. For a wide variety of loading conditions, failure initiated in a limited number of locations in the composite. It was also found that the two degrees of weave undulation studied shared similar characteristic failure initiation sites. Additionally, it was observed that stress concentrations which result from idealizations of the textile geometry could have a strong effect on the predicted failure initiation locations. Steps were taken to reduce the influence of these stress concentrations, including modifying the textile geometry and excluding certain problematic regions of the textile from consideration when searching for failure initiation locations.