Stress analysis in FRP composites

Abstract

Summary A composite material, in mechanics sense, is a structure with the ingredients as element transferring forces to adjacent members. The issue of defects and their effect on the mechanical properties of composites is of great concern among high end users. Experimental investigation of failure modes of composite materials requires correlating the fundamentals of composite materials, their mechanical properties as well as their failure characteristics in the presence of defects. In this paper, three formats of defects of hole (single, double and quadruple) as a discontinuity were incorporated along with tensile testing. Unique failure modes of these specimens provided overview regarding mechanical behaviour of composite materials containing defects. Certain correlations were observed between defects and resulting properties. Results are in agreement with general behaviour of FRP composite laminates and it can be concluded that for low deformation in composite laminates, number of layers must be increased, which at the same time results in increase of von-Mises stress. Fibres are the main constituents which are responsible for strength of a composite laminate and they along with fibre orientation, play an important role on its load bearing capacity. It can be inferred based on the analysis that cross-ply configuration [0°/90°] has good load bearing capacity as well as least deflection emphasizing more strength.