Numerical investigation of the bearing performance of Thin- and Thick-Ply hybrid laminates

Abstract

This publication presents a numerical investigation of Thin-Ply Hybrid CFRP bolted joints. In addition to Thin- and Thick-Ply specimens, hybrid specimens are investigated by substituting a part of the 90° CFRP layers with stainless steel foils. The numerical investigations are based on preliminary experimental work, which showed that fibre kinking led to final failure. A modelling strategy that includes 3D stress states and fibre kinking is chosen. The influence of micro-damages such as matrix cracks decreases with decreasing layer thickness. Therefore, and to avoid high computational power, primarily micro-damages such as matrix cracks are not included. The results of the simulations of the Thin-Ply and the hybrid samples show a good agreement with the experimental results. By hybridisation, the bearing performance can be significantly increased. It is shown that the modelling approach of not including micro-damage is well applicable for thinner plies but reaches its limits for thicker plies.