Crushing of Flat Graphite/Epoxy Laminates Using a Column Specimen

Abstract

Crush testing of flat composite laminates is achieved using a simple test specimen that permits improved observation of the development of crushing damage and hence better correlation with crush modeling efforts. Graphite/Epoxy specimens fabricated as two intersecting flat laminates are crushed under quasistatic conditions. Effective triggering of progressive crushing damage is difficult, though stable crushing is achieved using a conventional chamfering technique. Crushing results from the column specimens were comparable to specimens made with a similar material and lay-up and crushed in a plate crushing fixture. The specimen geometry permits direct observation of the evolution of damage in the laminate in the proximity of the free edges of the laminate, and thus offers the potential for assisting the validation of phenomenological finite element crush models that attempt to capture the splaying crushing mode typical of many composite systems under crushing loads.