whole-field assessment of the effects of boundary conditions on the strain field in off-axis tensile testing of unidirectional composites

The objective of this paper is to present an experimental assessment of the effects of boundary conditions on the strain field in 10° off-axis tensile tests on unidirectional carbon/epoxy composites. It is shown experimentally by using a whole-field phase stepped grid technique that oblique tabbing of off-axis coupons results in a homogeneous strain field over the whole specimen, thus preventing premature failure near the tabs. A numerical sensitivity study reveals that the oblique angle is not very sensitive to the elastic moduli values. Therefore only estimates of the moduli are needed to derive the oblique angle. It is also shown by finite-element analysis that a 3° error on the oblique angle is acceptable in terms of stress concentrations near the tabs, but that a 7° error leads to significant stress concentrations for this material.