Simulation Analysis of Influence of Different Parameters on Sliding Failure and Compressive Failure of Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer

Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer (CFRP) is an anisotropic material with outstanding tensile strength in the direction of axial but low compressive strength in the direction of radial, so the radial compressive failure and sliding failure are easy to occur in the practical application of compression and hanging wires. In this paper, the influence of different parameters on radial compressive failure and sliding failure is studied. The finite element method is used to simulate and analyze the CFRP and wedge clamp to find optimum condition parameters to make the CFRP neither sliding failure nor radial compressive failure. The parameters are as follows: interference between the CFRP and the inner wedge, friction coefficient between the CFRP and the inner wedge, angle of the wedge, inner wedge material elastic modulus. The results show that the most appropriate parameter is: the interference between 0.0236mm and 0.0252mm, the friction coefficient between 0.194 and 0.206, the wedge angle is greater than 1.75° and the elastic modulus of wedge material has little influence on the compressive failure and slippage failure of the CFRP.

Experimental and Numerical Study on the Compressive Failure of Composite Laminates with Fiber Waviness Defects

Fiber waviness defects are found in the inner surface of the hat-shaped stringers manufactured by a process system. In order to establish the acceptance criterion for the stringers with the fiber waviness defects, experimental testing and numerical simulation were carried out in this study. Specially induced fiber waviness defects of four pre-defined severity levels were manufactured and tested. A maximum of a 58.1% drop in compressive failure load is observed for the most severe level in the experimental results. A finite element model with progressive damage method and cohesive zone technique was developed to simulate the failure process and the impact of fiber waviness defects. The numerical simulation results of compressive failure load have a good agreement with experimental results qualitatively and quantitatively. In addition, two simple parameters, i.e., aspect ratio A/H and the number of plies with fiber waviness, are proposed to characterize the influence of the fiber waviness on the compressive failure load for the purpose of fast engineering quality checks.

STRENGTH SIZE EFFECT IN FIBER COMPOSITES FAILING UNDER LONGITUDINAL AND TRANSVERSE COMPRESSION

The size effect in the structural strength of fiber reinforced composites has been typically analyzed for tensile failures. However, this is not true for the equally important compressive failures, primarily due to the difficulties in conducting compression tests on specimens of multiple sizes. These size effects are analyzed here numerically for two important compressive failure mechanisms in composites, viz. (i) fiber kink bands forming under longitudinal compression (typically accompanied by axial splitting matrix cracks) and (ii) inclined shear cracks forming under transverse compression. The former mechanism is modeled by a semi-multiscale microplane model, while the latter by the fixed crack model. Both models are calibrated and verified using available test data on carbon fiber composites and then used to predict the failure and load bearing capacities of geometrically scaled pre-cracked specimens of different sizes. In all cases, the predicted failure is found to be of a propagating nature, accompanied by release of strain energy from the specimen causing a distinct size effect in the nominal strength. For the composite considered here, under longitudinal compression, the fracture process zone (FPZ) is found to be fairly small (<1 mm) and the strength size effect is seen to follow linear elastic fracture mechanics (LEFM). The size effect deviates from LEFM for smaller specimen sizes due to increased flaw size insensitivity but cannot be fitted by Bažant's size effect law since the geometric similarity of the failure mode is lost. On the other hand, under transverse compression the FPZ is found to be much larger (34 to 42 mm) and the size effect is found to obey Bažant's size effect law, deviating from LEFM. The failure is geometrically similar despite being inclined to the pre-crack. These findings provide evidence of the general applicability of fracture mechanics-based size effect laws to compressive failure in fiber composites, and prompt suitable experimental investigations.