Damage Processes and Fracture Surface Morphology in Laminated Composites
Abstract
Because of complex mechanical behavior of laminated composite materials, the failure processes of these materials are often ill-understood. This is of particular importance when the issue of composite fracture testing is considered. Without an adequate understanding of why a laminate fails, there is the danger of producing useless data, along with the greater danger of being guided by that data. Clearly, it is highly important to understand how laboratory specimens fail. This work encompasses in-depth examination of the failure mechanisms of two widely-used composite laminate configurations: the interlaminar shear strength of a composite, and the cracked lap shear test, which is used to determine critical strain energy release rates for delamination, and to characterize resistance to delamination growth. These configurations have been analyzed and modelled as structures, in order to gain detailed understanding of their behavior during testing. Particular emphasis has been placed upon three areas. The first is the correlation between the observed morphology of the fracture surface and the predicted and actual data produced by the configuration during testing. The second area is the way in which these damage modes interact to cause final failure. Theses.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Aug 01, 1990
- Accession Number
- ADA227979
Entities
People
- Bryan H. Fortson
Organizations
- Air Force Institute of Technology