Numerical and Experimental Investigation of the Through-Thickness Strength Properties of Woven Glass Fiber Reinforced Polymer Composite Laminates under Combined Tensile and Shear Loading

Teruyoshi Kanno,Hiroki Kurita,Fumio Narita,Hitoshi Tamura,Masashi Suzuki

doi:10.3390/jcs4030112

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the through-thickness stresses of woven glass fiber reinforced polymer (GFRP) composite laminates under combined tensile and shear loading. Tensile tests were carried out with cross specimens at room temperature under various stacking angles, and the through-thickness strength properties of the woven GFRP laminates were evaluated. The failure characteristics of the woven GFRP laminates were also studied by optical microscopy observations. A three-dimensional finite element analysis (FEA) was carried out to calculate the stress distributions in the cross specimens, and the failure conditions of the specimens were examined. The numerically determined interlaminar tensile and shear stresses at failure location were consistent with Hoffman and Mohr-Coulomb failure criteria when the stacking angle was relatively small. This work is the first attempt to quantify the relation between interlaminar tensile and shear strengths of GFRP composite laminates under tensile and shear loading simultaneously using a combined numerical and experimental approach. A method based on finite element stress analysis was developed for estimating the through-thickness strength of the composite laminates using the experimentally determined fracture load and location. The results suggest that the through-thickness strength under combined tensile and shear loading can be determined effectively by this approach for relatively small stacking angles.

Highlights

Woven glass fiber reinforced polymer (GFRP) composite laminate is applied in various fields because of its excellent mechanical and physical properties
By introducing local coordinate systems, the peak interlaminar tensile and shear stresses at the fracture locations were estimated, and these values could be regarded as the interlaminar tensile and shear strengths
The following conclusions are drawn as: 1. The cross specimens with the stacking angles 0◦ ∼ 45◦ tended to fracture near the reduced section, whereas some specimens with stacking angle 60◦ fractured at the radius point where the maximum interlaminar shear stress would be applied, and all specimens with the stacking angle 90◦ fractured near the contact points between the specimen and the jigs where the stress concentration occurred

Summary

Introduction

Woven glass fiber reinforced polymer (GFRP) composite laminate is applied in various fields because of its excellent mechanical and physical properties. Takeda et al [1] have examined the shear strength and damage self-sensing of woven carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) composite laminates at cryogenic temperatures. Takeda et al [6] have proposed another cross specimen to investigate the interlaminar tensile behavior of woven GFRP composite laminates at cryogenic temperatures. Static through-thickness tensile tests were performed on woven GFRP composite laminates using this cross specimen, and the interlaminar tensile failure mechanisms were investigated. Narita et al [8] adopted the geometry [6] and performed cyclic fatigue through-thickness tensile tests on the cross specimen of woven GFRP composite laminates at cryogenic temperatures, and investigated the interlaminar tensile fatigue mechanisms. It was found that cooling from room temperature to 77 K causes an increase in the number of cycles to failure

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