Intralaminar fatigue crack growth properties of conventional and interlayer toughened CFRP laminate under mode I loading

Intralaminar and interlaminar fatigue crack growth behaviours under mode I loading were investigated with conventional and interlayer toughened unidirectional CFRP laminates. For intralaminar crack growth tests, initial defects were introduced using “intralaminar film insertion method”, in which a release film is inserted inside a single lamina prepreg. A fatigue test under a constant maximum energy release rate, G_max, was carried out using DCB specimens. It was found that the intralaminar fatigue crack growth property of the interlayer toughened CFRP laminates was the same as that of the conventional CFRP laminates. For the interlayer toughened CFRP laminates, the G_max with a given crack growth rate, da/dN, was much lower for intralaminar crack growth than for interlaminar crack growth. The da/dN-G_max curve at zero crack extension, Δa = 0, which was estimated by extrapolating the da/dN-Δa relationship, was not affected by bridging fibres, and most conservative for the interlayer toughened CFRP laminates.     

Delamination of multidirectional composite laminates at 0°/θ° ply interfaces

The main objective of this study is to develop a methodology for establishing mixed-mode delamination propagation criteria of non-unidirectional laminates. The crack interface was chosen to be 0°/45° and the effort was mainly focused on obtaining the mode I fracture toughness (G_IC). The widely used DCB test was avoided due to anticipated problems with intralaminar damage developing at the ply interface of interest. The ADCB and AMMF methods were used to determine the mixed-mode fracture toughness with the largest amount of mode I. The selected stacking sequence resulted in desirable crack propagation behavior; there was no change of delamination plane, an acceptable crack front profile, no initial specimen curvature, and no energy dissipation through global specimen damage. Finite element simulation was found to be the only tool capable of analyzing the experimental data.     

Tensile Behaviour of Multilayer Knitted Fabric Composites with Different Stacking Configuration

In this paper, multilayer plain weft knitted glass fabric reinforced epoxy composite laminates with different stacking configurations, i.e., [0°]₄, [0°/±45°/0°], [0°/90°/90°/0°] and [90°]₄, were investigated experimentally. The laminates were uniaxially tensile loaded until final fractures occurred. The experimental results show that with the change in layer stacking structure, a corresponding variation in composite strength and stiffness was achieved. The tensile strength and modulus rank as follows: [0°]₄ > [0°/±45°/0°] > [0°/90°/90°/0°] > [90°]₄, which implicates a potential desiguability of Knitted Fabric Composites (KFC) for engineering applications. Failure behaviours of the fractured laminate specimens were examined using a matrix digestion and layer peeling method, based on which the behaviour of each lamina in the laminate can be clearly shown. It was found that an angle-plied lamina in the laminate when subjected to a uniaxial tensile load has a different fracture mode from that of a single ply composite under an off-axial tensile load. This means that the lamina in the laminate is subjected to a more complicated load combination. By comparing the fractured mode of the latter lamina with that of the single ply composite, the load direction sustained by the lamina in the laminate can be identified, which provides a qualitative benchmark for verifying a theoretical simulation.     

Numerical investigation to prevent crack jumping in Double Cantilever Beam tests of multidirectional composite laminates

During the experimental characterization of the mode I interlaminar fracture toughness of multidirectional composite laminates, the crack tends to migrate from the propagation plane (crack jumping) or to grow asymmetrically, invalidating the tests.The aim of this study is to check the feasibility of defining the stacking sequence of Double Cantilever Beam (DCB) specimens so that these undesired effects do not occur, leading to meaningful onset and propagation data from the tests. Accordingly, a finite element model using cohesive elements for interlaminar delamination and an intralaminar ply failure criterion are exploited here to thoroughly investigate the effect of specimen stiffness and thermal residual stresses on crack jumping and asymmetric crack growth occurring in multidirectional DCB specimens.The results show that the higher the arm bending stiffness, the lower the tendency to crack jumping and the better the crack front symmetry. This analysis raises the prospect of defining a test campaign leading to meaningful fracture toughness results (onset and propagation data) in multidirectional laminates.     

XFEM simulation of delamination in composite laminates

In this paper, the extended finite element method (XFEM) is extended to simulate delamination problems in composite laminates. A crack-leading model is proposed and implemented in the ABAQUS® to discriminate different delamination morphologies, i.e., the 0°/0° interface in unidirectional laminates and the 0°/90° interface in multidirectional laminates, which accounts for both interlaminar and intralaminar crack propagation. Three typical delamination problems were simulated and verified. The results of single delamination in unidirectional laminates under pure mode I, mode II, and mixed mode I/II correspond well with the analytical solutions. The results of multiple delaminations in unidirectional laminates are in good agreement with experimental data. Finally, using a recently proposed test that characterizes the interaction of delamination and matrix cracks in cross-ply laminates, the present numerical results of the delamination migration caused by the coupled failure mechanisms are consistent with experimental observations.     

Monitoring of delamination onset and growth during Mode I and Mode II interlaminar fracture tests using guided waves

A delamination monitoring method was proposed to characterize Mode I and Mode II delamination onset in carbon fiber/epoxy (CF/EP) composite laminates through interrogation of guided waves activated and captured using piezoelectric actuators and sensors in a pitch–catch configuration. Mode I and Mode II interlaminar fracture tests were conducted using double cantilever beam (DCB) and end notch flexure (ENF) specimens to evaluate the proposed method. The changes in wave propagation velocity and wave magnitude (or attenuation), and the degree of waveform similarity between excitation and response signals, were calculated as delamination-sensitive wave parameters and plotted versus displacement recorded using a materials testing system. The kink points determined from wave parameter–displacement curves agreed well with the deviation from linearity (NL), visual observation (VIS) and maximum load (Max) points, which are often used in conventional methods for determining interlaminar fracture toughness. The propagation characteristics of the A₀ wave mode in a low frequency range were demonstrated to have high sensitivity to Mode I and in particular Mode II delamination onset in CF/EP composite laminates. It was concluded that the guided waves propagating in the DCB and ENF specimens were capable of determining Mode I and Mode II interlaminar fracture toughness, complementing current practices based on visual inspection or trivial interrogation using load–displacement curve alone.     

Double cantilever beam testing of multidirectional laminates

Several difficulties in the double cantilever beam (DCB) tests of multidirectional laminates often prevent valid measurements of the mode I critical strain energy release rate G_Ic. In this paper, several DCB specimens were analysed with 3D finite element models. The results showed that the undesired effects of residual stresses and of mode-mixity can be minimised. An interlaminar stress based fracture criterion predicts that the G_Ic of multidirectional specimens is typically 10–40% higher than the G_Ic of unidirectional [0°]_n laminates. This agrees with the few valid experimental data available.     

Impact damage initiation in composite materials

A series of low velocity impact tests have been carried out on a (0°, 90°) glass fibre reinforced epoxy resin in order to investigate the influence of varying key impact parameters on the damage initiation threshold. Initial tests have confirmed observations made by previous researchers, that is that the impact force required to initiate damage, P_crit, varies linearly with t^3/2, where t is the target thickness. This relationship has been shown to apply for test temperatures between 23 and 90 °C. The experimental evidence suggests that the influence of test temperature on damage initiation is complex, although the evidence does suggest that the initiation force increasing with temperature in the thinner laminates. It has also been shown that this threshold does not exhibit any significant target size dependency, for the range of plate geometries investigated here. A final series of tests to investigate the influence of impactor geometry have shown that P_crit increases with indentor diameter, with the most significant changes being observed in the thinner laminates.     

Stiffness and fracture analysis of laminated composites with off-axis ply matrix cracking

Matrix cracks parallel to the fibres in the off-axis plies is the first intralaminar damage mode observed in laminated composites subjected to static or fatigue in-plane tensile loading. They reduce laminate stiffness and strength and trigger development of other damage modes, such as delaminations. This paper is concerned with theoretical modelling of unbalanced symmetric laminates with off-axis ply cracks. Closed-form analytical expressions are derived for Mode I, Mode II and the total strain energy release rates associated with off-axis ply cracking in [0/θ]_s laminates. Stiffness reduction due to matrix cracking is also predicted analytically using the Equivalent Constraint Model (ECM) of the damaged laminate. Dependence of the degraded stiffness properties and strain energy release rates on the crack density and ply orientation angle is examined for glass/epoxy and carbon/epoxy laminates. Suitability of a mixed mode fracture criterion to predict the cracking onset strain is also discussed.     

An investigation into the damage development and residual strengths of open-hole specimens in fatigue

An extensive experimental program was carried out to investigate and understand the sequence of damage development throughout the life of open-hole composite laminates loaded in tension–tension fatigue. Quasi-isotropic carbon/epoxy laminates, with stacking sequence [45₂/90₂/−45₂/0₂]_S, [45/90/−45/0]_2S and [45/90/−45/0]_4S were examined. These were selected on the basis that under quasi-static loading the [45₂/90₂/−45₂/0₂]_S configuration exhibited a delamination dominated mode of failure whilst the [45/90/−45/0]_2S and [45/90/−45/0]_4S configurations showed a fibre dominated failure mode, previously described as “pull-out” and “brittle” respectively. Specimens were fatigue loaded to 1 × 10⁶ cycles or catastrophic failure, which ever occurred first. A number of tests were interrupted at various points as the stiffness dropped with increasing cycles, which were inspected using X-ray computed tomography (CT) scanning. A static residual strength program was carried out for run-out specimens of each configuration.     

Mode III interlaminar fracture of carbon/epoxy laminates using the edge crack torsion (ECT) test

The mode III interlaminar fracture of carbon/epoxy laminates was evaluated with the edge crack torsion (ECT) test. Three-dimensional finite element analyses were performed in order to select two specimen geometries and an experimental data reduction scheme. Test results showed considerable non-linearity before the maximum load point and a significant R-curve effect. These features prevented an accurate definition of the initiation point. Nevertheless, analyses of non-linearity zones showed two likely initiation points corresponding to G_IIIc values between 850 and 1100 J/m² for both specimen geometries. Although any of these values is realistic, the range is too broad, thus showing the limitations of the ECT test and the need for further research.     

Measurement of the in situ ply fracture toughness associated with mode I fibre tensile failure in FRP. Part II: Size and lay-up effects

The in-plane size, thickness and lay-up effects on the measured fracture toughness associated with fibre tensile failure were investigated for a T300/920 laminated carbon/epoxy material system. Compact tension specimens were tested with scaled in-plane size, increased thickness, and having various proportions of plies orientated at 0° and 90° to the loading direction. No in-plane size effects were discovered; however, testing revealed a thickness dependence. It was found that the ply toughness is significantly dependent on the thickness of the 0° layers. Propagation values of toughness were measured to be 132 kJ/m² for specimens made up of [90/0₂] sub-laminates and between 57 and 69 kJ/m² for all other configurations. Investigation of the fracture surfaces using SEM revealed that the increase in measured toughness for specimens with thicker 0° plies was due to an increase in the amount of pulled-out 0° fibres.     

Mode III interlaminar fracture of carbon/epoxy laminates using the Six-Point Edge Crack Torsion (6ECT)

The recently proposed Six-Point Edge Crack Torsion (6ECT) test was used to evaluate the mode III interlaminar fracture of carbon/epoxy laminates. Plate specimens with starter delaminations in 0/0, 0/90 and 0/45 interfaces were tested. Data reduction was performed with an effective crack scheme validated in a previous numerical study. The tests allowed the evaluation of fairly unambiguous initiation G_IIIC values and of subsequent R-curves. Examinations of specimen cross-section showed considerable lengths of pure interlaminar propagation in specimens with starter delaminations in 0/90 and 0/45 interfaces. The latter specimens had the lowest initiation G_IIIC values.     

Prediction of initiation of transverse cracks in cross-ply CFRP laminates under fatigue loading by fatigue properties of unidirectional CFRP in 90° direction

A fatigue life to the initiation of transverse cracks in cross-ply carbon fiber-reinforced plastic (CFRP) laminates has been predicted using properties of the fatigue strength of unidirectional CFRP in the 90° direction. In the experiments, unidirectional [90]₁₂ laminates were used to obtain a plot of maximum stress versus number of cycles to breaking, and two types of cross-ply laminates of [0/90₄]_S and [0/90₆]_S were used to evaluate the initiation and multiplication of transverse cracks under fatigue loading. Transverse cracks were studied by optical microscopy and soft X-ray photography. Analytical and experimental results showed good agreement, and the fatigue life for transverse crack initiation in cross-ply laminates was predicted successfully from the fatigue strength properties of the unidirectional CFRP in the 90° direction. The prediction results showed a conservative fatigue life than the experimental results.     

Influence of intralaminar cracking on the apparent interlaminar mode I fracture toughness of cross‐ply laminates

One of the major difficulties in interlaminar fracture tests of multidirectional laminates is the high tendency for intralaminar cracking and the resulting wavy crack propagation. Experimental work showed that this occurred in double cantilever beam (DCB) tests of cross‐ply laminates having a starter crack on a 0°/90° interface. Moreover, under steady‐state propagation conditions, the apparent values of the critical strain energy release rate G_Ic were two times higher than those of 0°/0° specimens. In this paper, a finite‐element‐based progressive damage model was used to simulate crack propagation in cross‐ply specimens. The results showed that transverse cracking alone cannot be responsible for the above difference of G_Ic values. Therefore, the higher propagation G_Ic values for cross‐plies must be attributed to the more extensive fibre bridging observed and to plastic deformations of the 90° interfacial ply.     

Improvement of interlaminar mechanical properties of CFRP laminates using VGCF

In order to improve the interlaminar mechanical properties of CFRP laminates, hybrid CFRP/VGCF laminates have been fabricated by using a newly-developed method, i.e., powder method, where the powder of vapor grown carbon fiber (VGCF) is added at the mid-plane of [0°/0°]₁₄ CFRP laminates. Experimental results of double cantilever beam (DCB) tests indicate the improvement on the interlaminar mechanical properties of Mode-I fracture behavior with much higher critical load P_C and fracture toughness G_IC with VGCF interlayer. Crack propagation and fracture surface have also been observed to interpret this improvement mechanism. Moreover, based on experimental G_IC, numerical simulations using finite element method (FEM) with cohesive elements have been carried out to analyze the delamination propagation. The interlaminar tensile strength of hybrid CFRP/VGCF laminates, which is obtained by matching the numerical load–COD (crack opening displacement) curves to experimental ones, is higher than that of base CFRP laminates.     

Simulation of fatigue performance of cross-ply composite laminates

The fatigue life of cross-ply composite laminates was evaluated using a statistical model. A modified shear-lag analysis was applied to describe the cycle-number-dependent stiffness reduction and consequent stress redistribution processes in the laminates resulted from both progressive transverse matrix cracking in transverse plies and local delamination at tips of transverse cracks. From the strength degradation behaviour and the static strength distribution of 0° plies as well as the fatigue behaviour of 90° plies, the fatigue life of cross-ply laminates with various types of lay-up can be simulated from the model. Predictions of fatigue performance are compared with experimental data for [0/90₂] _s , [02/90₂] _s and [0₂/90₄] _s graphite/epoxy cross-ply laminates: good agreements are obtained.     

Prediction of environmental degradation of closed adhesive joints using data from open-faced specimens

A framework was established to predict the fracture toughness of degraded closed DCB (CDCB) joints of a toughened adhesive-aluminum system using fracture data obtained from accelerated degradation tests on open-faced joints. The exposure index (EI), the time integral of water concentration, was calculated at all points in the closed joints using the water diffusion properties of the adhesive. The fracture toughness of the closed joints was then predicted from these calculated EIs by making reference to previously reported fracture toughness data from open-faced DCB (ODCB) specimens degraded to various EI levels. To verify the predictions, fracture experiments and analyses were carried out for closed DCB joints degraded at 60 °C-95% relative humidity (RH) and 60 °C-82% RH conditions. The failure mode of both closed and open DCBs was cohesive in the adhesive layer. Good agreement was observed between the predicted steady-state critical strain energy release rate (G_cs) values and the experimentally measured G_cs values for the degraded closed DCB joints. The results showed that the accelerated open-faced methodology, which significantly reduces the exposure time to reach a given level of degradation, can be used to predict the durability of degraded closed joints used in service conditions. It was also shown that at a given temperature, the knowledge of the degradation behavior at one RH level could be extended to other levels of RH with an acceptable accuracy using the fact that fracture degradation at a given temperature is a unique function of EI, independent of the RH exposure history that gives rise to EI. The results are applicable to other laminated systems where degradation of the bonding layer is a failure mode of concern.     

Bearing strength of commingled boron/glass fiber reinforced aluminum laminates

The bearing properties of recently developed hybrid fiber/metal laminates, or COmmingled Boron/glass fiber Reinforced Aluminum laminates (COBRA), are investigated in this study. The bolt-type bearing tests on GLass REinforced aluminum laminates (GLARE), non-commingled hybrid boron/glass/aluminum fiber/metal laminates (HFML) and COBRA were carried out as a function of e/D ratio, metal volume fraction, fiber volume fraction, and fiber orientation. Experimental results show that with the same joint geometry and metal volume fraction, the commingling of boron fibers improves the bearing strength of fiber/metal laminates. Observations show the boron/glass fiber prepreg, transverse to the loading direction, results in a bearing mechanism that effectively increases the bearing strength. The bearing strength of COBRA with longitudinal fibers is lower than that with transverse fibers due to the fact that shearout failure takes place before maximum bearing strength is reached. The experimental results show that, with only either transverse fiber orientation or longitudinal fiber orientation, COBRA with 18% boron fiber volume fraction possesses a higher bearing strength when compared to HFML with 6% boron fiber volume fraction. In addition to the properties in COBRA with parallel-plies commingled prepreg, the bearing properties of various COBRA with [0°/90°] and [0°/90°/90°/0°] cross-ply commingled prepregs are also discussed.     

Interlaminar and intralaminar fracture modes in 0/90 cross-ply glass/epoxy laminate

Delamination of a cross-ply 0/90 glass fibre-reinforced composite laminate with an epoxy-phenol matrix was studied using a double cantilever beam test. Fracture toughness was determined by measurement of bend angle of the cantilever beams. Results obtained with this method were in agreement with those from conventional compliance and area methods. Two different fracture modes were observed: interlaminar and intralaminar. In the interlaminar fracture mode, crack jumps in the space between two neighbouring 0° and 90° plies were observed. With the interlaminar fracture mode, during crack initiation G_Ic decreased with crack length. Intralaminar fracture mode consisted of the gradual growth of a crack through a 0° ply. Fibres bridging the opposite sides of the crack were observed in this case, and fracture toughness G_Ic did not change with crack length. G_Ic (420 J m⁻²) at intralaminar fracture mode was approximately twice that at interlaminar fracture mode (220 J m⁻²). The difference in fracture toughness was explained by the dissipation of energy by fibres bridging the opposite sides of the crack at intralaminar fracture mode.