Tensile properties and failure mechanisms of 3D woven GRP composites

Tensile tests were performed on glass reinforced polymer (GRP) composites with three-dimensional (3D) orthogonal, normal layered interlock, and offset layered interlock woven fibre architectures. The mechanical properties and failure mechanisms under tensile loading were similar for the three composites. Cracks formed at low strains within the resin-rich channels between the fibre tows and around the through-thickness binder yarns in the composites, although this damage did not alter the tensile properties. At higher applied tensile stresses the elastic modulus was reduced by 20–30% due to inelastic tow straightening and cracking around the most heavily crimped in-plane tows. Further softening occurred at higher strains by inelastic straightening of all the tows. Composite failure occurred within a localised region and the discrete tow rupture events that have caused tow lock-up and pullout mechanisms in other 3D woven composites were not observed.     

A facile method for preparing CNT-grafted carbon fibers and improved tensile strength of their composites

Carbon nanotube (CNT)-grafted carbon fibers (CFs) have emerged as new reinforcements for improving the mechanical properties of CF-reinforced composites but such enhancement in macroscale composites has not been realized. This paper reports a facile method for preparing CNT-grafted CFs and improving the tensile strength of their composites. A CNT/polyacrylonitrile solution was sprayed onto the surface of the CF woven fabrics, and the CNTs were grafted by a thermal treatment at 300 °C. CNT-grafted CF composites were fabricated using the CNT-grafted CF woven fabrics using a vacuum-assisted resin transfer molding process with epoxy resin. The CNT-grafted CF composite exhibited 22% enhancement in the tensile strength compared to that of the pristine CF composite. Fracture surfaces of the CNT-grafted CF composites showed that the grafted CNTs obstructed the propagation of micro-cracks and micro-delamination around the CFs and also yarn boundaries, resulting in improved tensile strength of CNT-grafted CF composites.     

Interlaminar fracture properties of weft-knitted/woven fabric interply hybrid composite materials

An experimental study has been undertaken to characterize the delamination behavior and tensile properties of interply hybrid laminated composites reinforced by interlock weft-knitted and woven glass fiber preform fabrics. The hybrid composites, comprising the alternate layers of interlock and uniweave fabrics, were compared to interlock knitted (only) and uniweave (only) composites with respect to delamination and tensile performances. Mode-I double cantilever beam and mode-II end-notched flexure tests were carried out to assess the interlaminar fracture toughness using aluminum-strip stiffened specimens. The mode-I and mode-II interlaminar fracture toughness values, G _IC and G _IIC, for the hybrid composite were about three and two times higher than that for the uniweave composite, respectively. The tensile strength and modulus of the hybrid composite were 315 MPa and 12.8 GPa in the wale direction, respectively, demonstrating that the strength and modulus were found to be slightly lower than those of the uniweave composite, and significantly improved in comparison with the interlock knitted composites.     

Analytical study of strength and failure behaviour of plain weave fabric composites made of twisted yarns

A two-dimensional analytical method is presented for the failure behaviour of plain weave fabric composites made of twisted yarns. The studies have been carried out on laminates with different configurations under on-axis uni-axial tensile loading. The cross-sectional area of the yarn was taken to be elliptical and the yarn path was taken to be sinusoidal. Different stages of failure are considered in the analysis. It has been observed that there is no significant reduction in tensile strength properties of plain weave fabric composites as a result of twisting of yarns. For E-glass yarns, twisting of yarns up to 5°, can facilitate ease of fabrication without significantly compromising the strength properties of the woven fabric composites.     

Quasi-static tensile behavior and damage of carbon/epoxy composite reinforced with 3D non-crimp orthogonal woven fabric

This paper presents a comprehensive experimental study and detailed mechanistic interpretations of the tensile behavior of one representative 3D non-crimp orthogonal woven (3DNCOW) carbon/epoxy composite. The composite is tested under uniaxial in-plane tensile loading in the warp, fill and ±45° bias directions. An “S-shape” nonlinearity observed in the stress–strain curves is explained by the concurrent contributions of inherent carbon fiber stiffening (“non-Hookean behavior”), fiber straightening, and gradual damage accumulation. Several approaches to the determination of a single-value Young’s modulus from a significantly nonlinear stress–strain curve are discussed and the best approach recommended. Also, issues related to the experimental determination of effective Poisson’s ratios for this class of composites are discussed, and their possible resolution suggested. The observed experimental values of the warp- and fill-directional tensile strengths are much higher than those typically obtained for 3D interlock weave carbon/epoxy composites while the nonlinear material behavior observed for the ±45°-directional tensile loading is in a qualitative agreement with the earlier results for other textile composites. Results of the damage initiation and progression, monitoried by means of acoustic emission, full-field strain optical measurements, X-rays and optical microscopy, are illustrated and discussed in detail. The damage modes at different stages of the increasing tensile loading are analyzed, and the principal progressive damage mechanisms identified, including the characteristic crack patterns developed at each damage stage. It is concluded that significant damage initiation of the present material occurs in the same strain range as in traditional cross-ply laminates, while respective strain range for other previously studied carbon/epoxy textile composites is significantly lower. Overall the revealed advantages in stiffness, strength and progressive damage behavior of the studied composite are mainly attributed to the absence of crimp and only minimal fiber waviness in the reinforcing 3DNCOW preform.     

Characterisation of 3D woven composite internal architecture and effect of compaction

Yarn waviness and resin rich regions play a major role in 3D woven composite mechanical properties and failure. A detailed study of two angle interlock 3D woven carbon fabrics has been carried out to characterise these architectural features and how they change under increasing levels of compaction. Computerised tomography (CT) X-ray scanning was used to capture the internal architecture of the fabrics. The study focussed on the out-of-plane crimp of the yarns and the size and shape of resin rich regions in consolidated panels. Results showed areas of high local crimp at weft/weaver interlace points. This was exacerbated at low levels of compaction but was eventually lowered under higher compaction levels. The appearance of resin channels was found to be heavily dependent on weave style, with large resin pockets appearing in weaver yarn planes which decreased significantly in size under compaction with distinctive changes in profile.     

Influence of Scale Specific Features on the Progressive Damage of Woven Ceramic Matrix Composites (CMCs)

It is well known that failure of a material is a locally driven event. In the case of ceramic matrix composites (CMCs), significant variations in the microstructure of the composite exist and their significance on both deformation and life response need to be assessed. Examples of these variations include changes in the fiber tow shape, tow shifting/nesting and voids within and between tows. In the present work, the influence of many of these scale specific architectural features of woven ceramic composite are examined stochastically at both the macroscale (woven repeating unit cell (RUC)) and structural scale (idealized using multiple RUCs). The recently developed MultiScale Generalized Method of Cells (MSGMC) methodology is used to determine the overall deformation response, proportional elastic limit (first matrix cracking), and failure under tensile loading conditions and associated probability distribution functions. Prior results showed that the most critical architectural parameter to account for is weave void shape and content with other parameters being less in severity. Current results show that statistically only the post-elastic limit region (secondary hardening modulus and ultimate tensile strength) is impacted by local uncertainties both at the macro and structural level.     

Fibre damage in the manufacture of advanced three-dimensional woven composites

Fibre damage caused by the weaving of three-dimensional (3D) fabric preforms for advanced composite materials is investigated. A Jacquard loom was used to weave continuous fibreglass yarns into a 3D orthogonal woven fabric. Samples of warp and through-thickness yarns that form the 3D fabric were taken from the loom at different stages in the weaving process to examine for fibre damage and determine their residual tensile properties. It was discovered that the fibres are abraded against each other and the loom machinery during weaving, and the resulting abrasion damage and removal of sizing agent causes a reduction in yarn strength of between 30 and 50% depending on the type of yarn. Some fibres are also broken during weaving, and this causes a small reduction to the yarn stiffness and contributes to the large loss in yarn strength. The implication of these findings for the design of advanced 3D woven composites in structural applications is discussed.     

Mechanical performance of carbon fibre-reinforced composites based on stitched preforms

A comparative assessment of the influence of pure assembly seams based on a thin (11 tex) polyester yarn in a zigzag geometry on the resulting mechanical performance of a non-crimped fabric (NCF) carbon fibre-reinforced epoxy composite manufactured by vacuum-assisted resin transfer moulding is presented. This study was aimed at generating a solid foundation regarding the overall performance level of stitched NCF composites and at identifying critical property changes. The comprehensive evaluation of the mechanical composite properties includes static as well as dynamic tests of the in-plane properties as well as a characterisation of the interlaminar properties such as apparent interlaminar shear strength (ILSS) and compression after impact (CAI). It is demonstrated that mechanical properties such as the tensile and compression stiffness and CAI strength are not degraded by the chosen stitching parameters, whereas the tensile and compression strength, ILSS as well as the tensile fatigue behaviour are reduced as a result of pronounced localised fibre ondulations. A direct comparison to properties of a commonly used 5H satin woven fabric composite verifies that the overall performance of these particular stitched NCF composites must be enhanced with regard to the identified key criteria to meet the level required for aircraft applications and in order to maintain the performance advantage of NCF composites as compared to standard woven fabrics in general. Promising approaches include the use of different yarn materials based on soluble thermoplastics and/or modified stitching parameters.     

Influence of fibre architecture on the tensile,compressive and flexural behaviour of 3D woven composites

This paper presents a comprehensive study on the tensile, compressive, and flexural performance of six types of 3D woven carbon-fibre/epoxy composites which were manufactured using a traditional narrow fabric weaving loom and resin transfer moulding. Four orthogonal and two angle-interlock weaves were tested with the primary loading direction parallel to the warp direction. The mechanical performance was found to be affected by the distribution of resin rich regions and the waviness of the load-carrying fibres, which were determined by the fibre architectures. The binding points within the resin rich regions were found to be the damage initiation sites in all weave types under all loading conditions, which were confirmed with both visual observation and digital image correlation strain maps. Among all weave types, the angle interlock weave W-3 exhibited the highest properties under all loading conditions.     

Meso-scale strain mapping in UD woven composites

Unidirectional (UD) woven laminates have complex tow geometry due to unbalanced weave architecture. Warp tows are held together by fine weft. Unit cell models for textile composites found in the literature are based on balanced weaves with identical warp and weft specifications. In this paper, unit cell geometry of unbalanced UD weaves has been considered. Unbalanced laminates have complex tow geometry with in-plane tow waviness and a significant overlap between adjacent tows. Main objective of this work is to measure full-field strain distribution at meso-scale or unit cell level and compare the results with FE analysis. Raman spectroscopy is a powerful technique for in situ strain measurement. A UD woven composite laminate with Kevlar fibres is used in this study, as Kevlar fibres exhibit clear Raman band shifts under strain. Influence of in-plane tow waviness on local strain gradients has been demonstrated.     

Prediction of the elastic behaviour of hybrid and non-hybrid woven composites

A micromechanical model called MESOTEX is presented for prediction of the elastic behaviour of composites reinforced with non-hybrid weave (plain weave, satin weave and twill weave) and hybrid weave (hybrid plain weave and hybrid twill weave) fabrics. By using the classical thin laminate theory applied to each woven structure, this analytical model takes into account the strand undulations in the two directions and also integrates the geometrical and mechanical parameters of each constituent (resin, fill and warp strands). A representative volume is chosen for each woven composite and the fibre architecture is described by several functions. To determine the effectiveness of this analysis, the elastic properties predicted for each woven composite are compared with experimental results and results extracted from the literature. This correlation shows excellent agreement between measured and predicted values, with a very low calculation cost (CPU time of less than 0·01 s).     

纤维束波动效应对平纹编织复合材料损伤行为的影响

平纹编织复合材料中纤维束波动效应会引起随动材料主方向变化及面外剪切应力集中,为了研究其对平纹编织复合材料力学性能及损伤行为的影响,提出改进的像素法细观有限元单胞模型。模型根据纤维束波动曲线定义了材料主方向的变化,采用Hashin准则模拟纤维束的损伤起始,并引入剪切修正因子考虑面外剪切应力对面内拉伸损伤的影响。模型可以预测平纹编织复合材料的面内拉伸强度和损伤演化过程,结果表明:纤维束材料主方向波动会引起平纹编织复合材料面内拉伸强度下降;面外剪切应力集中是导致复合材料最终失效的主要原因,且随着剪切修正因子增大,复合材料面内拉伸强度显著降低;纤维束材料主方向波动和面外剪切应力集中均对平纹编织复合材料的损伤行为和破坏机理产生了影响,需要在数值分析中对其进行准确描述。      

Effect of conductive yarn crimp in radiation patch on electromagnetic performance of 3D integrated microstrip antenna

A three-dimensionally integrated microstrip antenna (3DIMA) is a microstrip antenna woven into the three-dimensional woven composite for load bearing while functioning as an antenna. In this study, the effect of conductive yarn crimp on electromagnetic performance of 3DIMAs are investigated by designing, simulating and experimental testing of two microstrip antennas with different patch woven structures: one woven in plain weave pattern with most yarn crimp and the other woven orthogonally without yarn crimp. The measured voltage standing wave ratio (VSWR) of the crimp free 3DIMA was 1.05 at the resonant frequency of 1.31 GHz; while that of the crimped 3DIMA was 1.78 at the resonant frequency of 1.41 GHz. In addition, the measured radiation pattern of the crimp free 3DIMA in its radiating patch has smaller back lobe and side lobes than those of the crimped 3DIMA. This result indicates that yarn crimp may have a negative impact on electromagnetic performance of textile structural antennas.     

Development of Flax Fibre based Textile Reinforcements for Composite Applications

Most developments in the area of natural fibre reinforced composites have focused on random discontinuous fibre composite systems. The development of continuous fibre reinforced composites is, however, essential for manufacturing materials, which can be used in load-bearing/structural applications. The current work aims to develop high-performance natural fibre composite systems for structural applications using continuous textile reinforcements like UD-tapes or woven fabrics. One of the main problems in this case is the optimisation of the yarn to be used to manufacture the textile reinforcement. Low twisted yarns display a very low strength when tested dry in air and therefore they cannot be used in processes such as pultrusion or textile manufacturing routes. On the other hand, by increasing the level of twist, a degradation of the mechanical properties is observed in impregnated yarns (e.g., unidirectional composites) similar to off-axis composites. Therefore, an optimum twist should be used to balance processability and mechanical properties. Subsequently, different types of fabrics (i.e., biaxial plain weaves, unidirectional fabrics and non-crimp fabrics) were produced and evaluated as reinforcement in composites manufactured by well established manufacturing techniques such as hand lay-up, vacuum infusion, pultrusion and resin transfer moulding (RTM). Clearly, as expected, the developed materials cannot directly compete in terms of strength with glass fibre composites. However, they are clearly able to compete with these materials in terms of stiffness, especially if the low density of flax is taken into account. Their properties are however very favourable when compared with non-woven glass composites.     

碳纤维/环氧树脂脉管自润滑复合材料的制备及摩擦性能

以聚乳酸（PLA）为前驱体,碳纤维（CF）为增强体,通过经纬编织成PLA-CF复合纤维织物;以环氧树脂（EP）为基体,甲基硅油为润滑介质,采用前驱体蒸发（VaSC）技术和真空浸油方式分别制备了脉管自润滑环氧树脂（VAEP）材料和CF/VAEP复合材料。利用SEM对CF/VAEP复合材料的断面、摩擦面和对偶面形貌进行表征,以万能材料试验机和高速环块摩擦磨损试验机对CF/VAEP复合材料的力学和摩擦学性能进行了测试。结果表明:脉管结构和CF提升了EP的润滑性能和力学性能。当径向脉管密度为8孔/10 mm时,VAEP的摩擦系数和磨损率较纯EP分别降低了67.95%和85.71%;当径向脉管密度为8孔/10 mm,CF经纬丝束比为8/4时,CF/VAEP复合材料的拉伸强度、拉伸模量、弯曲强度、弯曲模量比相同径向脉管密度的VAEP分别提高了203.33%、44.16%、325.78%、311.37%。      

C/C-SiC缎纹编织复合材料孔隙缺陷的建模及其拉伸性能仿真

主要研究了随机孔隙缺陷在C/C-SiC缎纹编织复合材料中的有限元建模方法及其对拉伸性能的影响。基于C/C-SiC缎纹编织复合材料的细观结构和实验观察所得的微观形貌,得出孔隙缺陷具有随机分布特征,提出了一种三维随机碰撞算法模拟孔隙在复合材料中的分布,建立了含随机孔隙缺陷的C/C-SiC缎纹编织复合材料的有限元模型。采用有限元软件ABAQUS模拟了其在拉伸载荷下的力学行为,讨论了孔隙缺陷的尺寸和分布形式对材料拉伸性能的影响,并对试样进行了单轴拉伸实验测试,验证了数值模拟的有效性。结果表明,用本文方法建立的有限元模型符合含孔隙缺陷C/C-SiC缎纹编织复合材料的真实细观结构,相应的数值模拟结果也与试验数据吻合较好。本文的研究结果为含孔隙缺陷的缎纹编织复合材料及具有相似结构特征的复合材料的力学分析与优化设计提供了一种有效的方法。