Unidirectional Fiber-reinforced Polymer Composites Research Articles

Compressive failure mechanisms in unidirectional fiber reinforced polymer composites with embedded wrinkles

The present study examines how wrinkles affect a composite material’s compressive failure behavior. Uni-directional carbon fiber-reinforced polymer (UD-CFRP) composites with artificially induced wrinkles were fabricated by placing laminate strips in specific positions. The geometry and placement of these strips were varied, resulting in 18 different wrinkle configurations. Through extensive experimental testing, it was observed that the compressive strength decreased significantly, ranging from 20% to 73%, depending on the specific wrinkle configuration. The experimental results were found to align well with existing analytical models. Additionally, the study examined how the wrinkle characteristics affected the final kink bandwidth, angle, and inclination. Fractographic studies on the failed specimens revealed various damage modes at different length scales, including kinking, delamination, buckle delamination, crushing, fiber pullout, matrix cracking/failure, and fiber failure. Based on these findings, it is emphasized that the geometry of the wrinkles and the aforementioned damage modes at different length scales must be accounted for while developing a numerical model to predict the compressive behavior of the composite accurately.

Modeling 3D transverse elasto-plastic damage of unidirectional fiber-reinforced polymer composites using a smeared crack approach

This work presents a novel formulation of a 3D smeared crack model for unidirectional fiber-reinforced polymer composites based on a stress invariant approach for transverse yielding and failure initiation, and on a continuum damage approach. This formulation is developed to facilitate the implementation in an implicit solver, increasing solution robustness and computational efficiency in quasi-static and long duration analyses. The performance of the model is evaluated using monotonic and non-monotonic damage evolution, verified with single element tests to demonstrate the consistency of the proposed formulation. Additional benchmark examples regarding off-axis tension and compression tests are simulated and compared with the experimental results, showing good agreement for the plastic response, failure load and failure strain.

Numerical investigation of intrinsic competing damage mechanisms in unidirectional fiber reinforced polymer composites under compression

A three-dimensional repeating unit cell (3D-RUC) framework is used to analyze the effect of competing damage mechanisms—fiber failure, matrix plasticity/cracking, and fiber-matrix debonding—on the composite’s compressive behavior. Numerous parametric studies are carried out to investigate the impact of fiber volume fraction, fiber misalignment, and interfacial properties (such as strength, fracture energies, and friction) on compressive behavior. The results show that the compressive strength and kink band characteristics are integrally dependent on the fiber volume fraction, fiber misalignment, interfacial shear strength, interfacial friction, and matrix cracking, highlighting the need to accurately characterize the constituent’s mechanical properties and geometrical features.

Influence of interphase characteristics on the elastic modulus of unidirectional glass-reinforced epoxy composites: a computational micromechanics study

Abstract This article briefly discusses the role of interphase in the elastic moduli of unidirectional fiber-reinforced polymer composite materials. For this unidirectional glass fiber was chosen as reinforcement, and epoxy was selected as the matrix. A hexagonally packed representative volume element is used for the micromechanical analysis. Experimental validation was initially used to verify the accuracy of the established equations of the rule of mixing, Composite Cylinder Assemblage, Chamis, Halpin and Tsai, and Puck. The Chamis equation was found to be the most reasonable. Then the finite element approach in which interphase has been included was used to estimate the elastic moduli. The finite element model without interphase and the experimental result were taken as a reference. The influence of interface ratio and property of interphase on the homogenised elastic properties of the unidirectional fiber-reinforced polymer composites is analysed. A micromechanics plugin in Abaqus software was used to estimate the density and Young’s modulus of the unidirectional fiber-reinforced polymer composites. The interphase properties are varied, having 6.25%, 12.5%, 25% and 50% influence of the fiber phase and the remaining influence of the matrix phase with interface ratios of 0.1, 0.2 and 0.3. The interface ratio of 0.3, having 6.25% fiber phase influence, gave the most reasonable moduli values (with an error <10%) compared to the mean experimental moduli. The study showed interface ratio and interphase properties to critically influence the overall elastic property of the unidirectional fiber-reinforced polymer composites.

A new strategy for generating regional random fiber-reinforced polymer composite

This paper proposes a novel method of random fiber distribution inspired by the finite element mesh technique. It solves the problem of fiber interference when generating the Representative Volume Element (RVE) with a high volume fraction and prevents fiber cluster formation at low volume fractions. Theoretically, the method can produce Fiber-Reinforced Polymer (FRP) composites with volume fractions up to 90.7%. The mechanical properties of FRP composites are then predicted using a progressive damage model that considers the failure of the matrix and interface. The experimental results in the literature verify the rationality of the numerical model. Finally, the effect of varying volume fractions and cell-cutting methods on the mechanical characteristics of unidirectional FRP composites under transverse loading was studied. The results show that the elastic modulus increases with increasing fiber volume fraction, while the tensile strength shows an opposite trend. The hexagonal cell-cutting method can alleviate the adverse effect of the decrease in tensile strength with the increase in fiber volume fraction. Meanwhile, the hexagonal cell-cutting method is reliably reproducible, and the coefficient of variation for the 30 renditions is only 0.05%. It illustrates that the hexagonal cell-cutting method can generate composites with higher tensile strength compared to other methods.

A review on micromechanical modelling of progressive failure in unidirectional fibre-reinforced composites

The recent decades have seen various attempts at the numerical modelling of fibre-reinforced polymer (FRP) composites in the aerospace, auto and marine sectors due to their excellent mechanical properties. However, it is still challenging to accurately predict the failure of the composites because of their anisotropic and inhomogeneous characteristics, multiple failure modes and their interaction, especially under multiaxial loading conditions. Micromechanics-based numerical models, such as representative volume elements (RVEs), were developed to understand the progressive failure mechanisms of composites, and assessing existing failure criteria. To this aim, this review paper summarises the development of micromechanics-based RVE modelling of unidirectional (UD) FRP composites reported in the literature, with a focus on those models developed using finite element (FE) and discrete element (DE) methods. The generation of fibre spatial distribution, constitutive models of material constituents as well as periodic boundary conditions are briefly introduced. The progressive failure mechanisms of UD FRP composites simulated by RVEs under various loadings are discussed and the comparison of failure envelopes predicted by numerical results and classical failure criteria are reviewed.

Microbuckling behavior of unidirectional fiber-reinforced shape memory polymer composite undergoing compressive deformation

The microbuckling mechanics of unidirectional fiber-reinforced shape memory polymer composite (SMPC) with low fiber volume fraction were investigated, and the mechanical models were formulated considering the attenuation of shear strain in the resin matrix near the buckled fibers. We deduced the analytical expression of the attenuation function and the key parameters during the microbuckling process of SMPC, including the critical buckling wavelength and strain. The values determined by finite element analysis verified the accuracy of the above theoretical predictions. The nonlinear stress–strain relationship during the post-buckling process was also investigated. Additionally, the classical elastic–viscoelastic correspondence principle was established to determine the dynamic buckling behaviors of SMPC at different temperatures. The viscoelastic parameters of shape memory polymer (SMP) were obtained from the isothermal stress relaxation experiments, and then the variation of buckling wavelength with time at different temperatures was evaluated.

A frictional cohesive zone model for characterizing transverse compression responses of unidirectional fiber-reinforced polymer composites

The Coulomb friction law is incorporated into the traction separation law, so a friction cohesive zone model (FCZM) combining sliding friction, interfacial debonding, and the coupling of the debonding and friction is developed. The proposed interface model is used to describe the interfacial mechanical responses of fiber/resin composite. To verify this model, the finite element model of microdroplet is built, then the calculated results of the finite element model are compared with the microdroplet test. To analyze the effect of interface friction on the macroscopic strength and stiffness of unidirectional composites, the FCZM is applied to representative volume element (RVE), and the mechanical behaviors of composites is simulated by finite element analysis of RVE, then the results are compared with the test in reference [1, 2]. It is found that the interfacial debonding is accelerated and the macroscopic strength is reduced due to the friction.

On the fracture toughness testing for single-edge notched bend specimen of orthotropic materials

Majority of the fracture toughness tests on orthotropic materials reported in the literature are based on the testing methods developed for isotropic materials since there is no available testing standards specifically dealing with orthotropic materials. In this study, a systematic two-dimensional finite element analyses (2D FEA) of orthotropic single-edge notched bend (SENB) specimens are performed to evaluate the stress intensity factor (SIF) and crack mouth opening displacement (CMOD), which are two key parameters used in the fracture toughness tests. The analysis matrix covers a wide range of material orthotropy. Highly accurate regression solutions for SIF, CMOD compliance and its inverse function were developed as functions of orthotropy parameters. Applications of the proposed equations on experimental data are presented and further discussed. The research outcome is expected beneficial to the standardization of the fracture toughness testing on orthotropic composite materials such as wood, bone and unidirectional fiber-reinforced polymer composites.

Experimental analysis the effect of end mill flutes on delamination in milling of synthetic FRP composite

Fibre reinforced polymer (FRP) composites often employed the milling process to achieve the final geometrical shapes and dimensional tolerances. However, the random variations material properties and abrasiveness of FRP composite make the milling process become a challenge. An experimental approach has been committed in this study to analysis the effect of tool geometry in end-milling on unidirectional FRP composites with its machinability indices. The experiment methodology was conducted by altering the cutting tool geometry (number of flutes) and types of reinforcement fibres. Overall, the milling experiments induced various damages on FRP composite such as fibre pull-out, delamination and epoxy matrix interfacial de-bonding are associated to the rapid deterioration of tool sharpness. Besides that, the performance of four flutes end mill tool is distinguished with better surface finish when machining across carbon fibre orientation under same spindle speed and feed rate. This is likely due to the tool engagement during cutting process and nature properties of carbon FRP composite.

Effective viscoelastic behavior of polymer composites with regular periodic microstructures

Polymer matrix exhibit linear viscoelasticity during processing of composites. The viscoelastic homogenization problem in the time-domain play a vital role in the virtual process simulations. In this paper, full-field simulations using finite element (FE) are carried out for different regular periodic microstructures of unidirectional (UD) fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) (i.e., short, and long fiber) composite and particulate composites. The incremental variational based mean-field homogenization (MFH) as proposed by Lahellec and Suquet (Lahellec and Suquet, 2007a) is used here for comparing with the full-field solutions. Two different elastic bounds-based homogenization methods are coupled with this scheme. Implementation is validated with benchmark problems of particulate composites. These are then compared with the solutions of different particulate microstructures (face centered cubic (FCC), body centered cubic (BCC) and simple cubic (SC)). Mean-field response is closer to FCC arrangement. Additionally, FCC and BCC arrangement indicated nearly the same response with different local field statistics. Relaxation in the effective modulus of UD FRP composites obtained from the MFH compared well with the full-field solution as a function of direction and time for hexagonal arrangement of long fiber and staggered arrangement of ellipsoidal short fibers. The effect of different aspect ratio, volume fraction and contrast in properties on the macroscopic response is additionally investigated. Glass and carbon fiber with an isotropic approximation is used for studying the effect of contrast. Double inclusion MFH scheme coupled with the incremental variational approach indicated better comparisons with the full-field solution of UD FRP composites.

Micromechanics based analytical model for estimation of stress distribution and failure initiation in constituents of UDFRP composites subjected to transverse loading

When a Unidirectional fiber reinforced polymer (UDFRP) composite is subjected to transverse loading, there is spatial variation of stresses in the constituents. The failure in matrix initiates at the location of maximum stress. Stress distribution and failure initiation in constituents of UDFRP composites is usually studied through finite element (FE) analysis of representative volume element (RVE) which is computationally expensive and time consuming. The present study proposes an analytical model through which stress variation and failure initiation in the constituents of UDFRP composite can be obtained in simple and reliable way and it can be readily used in designing. For this model, RVE is idealized in the form of springs arranged in parallel and series. These springs represent the stiffness of constituents (fiber and matrix). The results of analytical model are compared with FE simulations and good agreement is observed. Influence of fiber volume fraction on failure initiation of UDFRP composites is also studied through FE analysis of RVE and analytical model.

Computational Multiscale Analysis of the Mechanical Behavior of Radially Grown Carbon Nanotube Architecture

AbstractAn atomistically-informed multiscale modeling framework is extended to assess the improvement in mechanical properties of unidirectional fiber-reinforced polymer composites with radially-gr...

A bundle-based shear-lag model for tensile failure prediction of unidirectional fiber-reinforced polymer composites

In this study, a novel shear-lag model based on impregnated fiber bundle (IFB) element is developed to predict the tensile behavior of unidirectional fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) composites. Rather than using a fiber element, the new model enables a full-field failure simulation due to its finite number of elements. Based on the micromechanical difference equation, we validated the effectiveness of the model and identified the damage evolution pattern by applying it to a basic model of 6 mm FRP tendon. Then, the effect of varied constituent properties, hybrid fibers and initial defects were investigated using the Monte Carlo (MC) method. Several interesting results were found and compared with the findings of earlier studies. For instance, it was found that a more stable IFB strength and higher matrix shear strength reduced variations in composite strength. A moderate hybrid ratio and careful packing of high- and low-elongation fibers helped to achieve optimum composite properties. In the thin-ply composite, transverse initial defects were more detrimental to composite strength than longitudinal defects. These findings prove the value of the bundle-based model, which can be used in future studies as an effective tool for evaluating the strength of various composites.

Temperature dependent longitudinal tensile strength model of unidirectional fiber reinforced polymer composites considering the effect of matrix plasticity

The unidirectional fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) composites have captured intensive attention of scholars owing to their superior longitudinal tensile properties. In this work, a temperature dependent longitudinal tensile strength model for unidirectional FRP composites was established based on the Force–Heat Equivalence Energy Density Principle and the bridging model. The model considers the evolution of constituents’ properties and residual thermal stress with temperature. Especially, the effect of polymer matrix plasticity at different temperatures on the temperature dependent tensile strength of unidirectional FRP composites is considered. Compared with our previous model and the Curtin’s model, the model can more conveniently predict the temperature dependent tensile strength, and the predictions obtain a better agreement with the available experimental results. Moreover, we conducted the influencing factors analysis for unidirectional FRP composites. This work provides a feasible and convenient method to predict the temperature dependent tensile strength of unidirectional FRP composites, and could offer beneficial insights for the material evaluation and optimization.

A microscopic elasto-plastic damage model for characterizing transverse responses of unidirectional fiber-reinforced polymer composites

Abstract A phenomenological-based micromechanical method, comprising the coupling of the matrix constitutive model and the cohesive zone (CZM) model at fiber-matrix interfaces, is presented to investigate the mechanical behaviors of unidirectional (UD) fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) composites subjected to transverse tension and compression. The key point of this method is the establishment of a novel elasto-plastic damage constitutive model using a fracture plane based yield criterion. Both plastic deformation and progressive failure procedure is incorporated in the implicit simulation. Special focus is given to the determination of the input values of constituent material properties, suggesting that directly using the macroscopic matrix properties to characterize the mechanical responses at the microscale level may bring large discrepancies in homogenized stress-strain responses of UD composites. A parametrical study is also carried out to calibrate cohesive parameters. The numerical results, in good agreement with experimental measurements, clearly reveal the damage scenarios and the dominant failure mechanisms. It can be concluded that the debonding of the fiber-matrix interfaces is responsible for the ultimate transverse tensile strength, while compression failure is governed by two possible modes, i.e. matrix compressive failure if matrix failure firstly occurs, and matrix tensile and interface debonding failure when debonding initiates first. Besides, the distribution of fracture plane angles in matrix is examined to further validate the predictive capacity of the proposed model.

A phase-field model for fracture of unidirectional fiber-reinforced polymer matrix composites

This study presents a crack phase-field approach for anisotropic continua to model, in particular, fracture of fiber-reinforced matrix composites. Starting with the variational formulation of the multi-field problem of fracture in terms of the deformation and the crack phase fields, the governing equations feature the evolution of the anisotropic crack phase-field and the balance of linear momentum, presented for finite and small strains. A recently proposed energy-based anisotropic failure criterion is incorporated into the model with a constitutive threshold function regulating the crack initiation in regard to the matrix and the fibers in a superposed framework. Representative numerical examples are shown for the crack initiation and propagation in unidirectional fiber-reinforced polymer composites under Mode-I, Mode-II and mixed-mode bending. Model parameters are obtained by fitting to sets of experimental data. The associated finite element results are able to capture anisotropic crack initiation and growth in unidirectional fiber-reinforced composite laminates.

An Energy-Based Concept for Yielding of Multidirectional FRP Composite Structures Using a Mesoscale Lamina Damage Model.

Composite structures are made of multidirectional (MD) fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) composite laminates, which fail due to multiple damages in matrix, interface, and fiber constituents at different scales. The yield point of a unidirectional FRP composite is assumed as the lamina strength limit representing the damage initiation phenomena, while yielding of MD composites in structural applications are not quantified due to the complexity of the sequence of damage evolutions in different laminas dependent on their angle and specification. This paper proposes a new method to identify the yield point of MD composite structures based on the evolution of the damage dissipation energy (DDE). Such a characteristic evolution curve is computed using a validated finite element model with a mesoscale damage-based constitutive model that accounts for different matrix and fiber failure modes in angle lamina. The yield point of composite structures is identified to correspond to a 5% increase in the initial slope of the DDE evolution curve. The yield points of three antisymmetric MD FRP composite structures under flexural loading conditions are established based on Hashin unidirectional (UD) criteria and the energy-based criterion. It is shown that the new energy concept provides a significantly larger safe limit of yield for MD composite structures compared to UD criteria, in which the accumulation of energy dissipated due to all damage modes is less than 5% of the fracture energy required for the structural rupture.

Characterization of unidirectional fiber reinforced polymer composites manufactured through resin film infusion process using micromechanical modeling

Resin Film Infusion (RFI) process is used for manufacturing large and thick unidirectional fiber reinforced polymer (UD FRP) composite structures for load bearing applications. Designing these load bearing structures requires the knowledge of effective elastic and strength characteristics of these composites. In this study, strength and stiffness properties of UD FRP manufactured through RFI process are predicted using a micromechanical modeling approach. A 3D representative volume element (3DRVE) with hexagonal array of fibers is used and all nine elastic constants of UD FRP composite are predicted. Failure models for fiber and resin are used to predict longitudinal tension/compression, transverse tension/compression and longitudinal shear strengths. Experiments were conducted on UD FRP composite manufactured through RFI process to obtain strength and stiffness properties. Results of experiment and simulations are compared and results validated.

Characterization of combined longitudinal and transverse FRPs for strengthening concrete columns

This paper presents the results of a study on the characterization of combined longitudinal near-surface-mounted (NSM) fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) bars and transverse FRP wraps for strengthening concrete columns. A total of 21 concrete cylinders were prepared, strengthened, and tested to characterize the performance of the strengthening system. Three arrangements of glass FRP (GFRP) bars were mounted in surface grooves, and unidirectional basalt FRP (BFRP) composite was used to wrap the specimens. It was shown that the wrapping system effectively prevented premature failures of the NSM bars and extended the contribution of the bars from a mean of 17.5% in the NSM specimens to a mean of 27.7% in the specimens strengthened with the combined NSM and transverse FRPs. An analytical model was also presented to predict the load–strain behavior and the effect of combined axial load and bending moment.