Characterization of Strength of Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer Composite Based on Micromechanics

Abstract

Micro-mechanics of failure (MMF) is a micromechanics-based failure criterion for composites, which can be applied to characterize the composite strength accurately and reliably. The strength and mechanical properties of unidirectional laminate are measured by the static tensile loading and compressive loading tests as well as three points bending test. The micromechanics model is proposed to amplify the detailed mechanical and residual thermal stresses for the key points in the fibers and matrix. The critical MMF parameters are characterized by using the stress amplification factors and the measured strengths of unidirectional laminate. The carbon fibers reinforced plastic UTS50/E51 is used to demonstrate the application of MMF theory. The failure envelopes are constructed and compared on the basis of the MMF theory and Tsai-Wu failure theory. The failure mechanism and static tensile strength of quasi-isotropic laminate of polymer composites is studied based on MMF. The UTS50/E51 CFRP is used to demonstrate the application of theory of MMF.

Keywords

Micromechanics of failure Constituent-based strength characterization Critical MMF parameters Non-interactive failure criteria

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