Measurement of the static compressive strength of carbon-fibre/epoxy laminates

This paper describes an experimental study of the compressive failure of T800/924C carbon-fibre/efoxy composite laminates. Undirectional laminates loaded parallel to the fibres have compressive strengths that are 70% of the tensile strength and fail by fibre-microbuckling. During microbuckling the fibre debonds from the matrix, and the fibres break in bending. Multidirectional (±45/0₂)₃]_sm laminates were also tested in compression, and the critical failure mechanism observed was microbuckling of the 0° plies. The failure strain was almost the same as for the undirectional laminate, The failure strain was almost the same as for the unidirectional laminate, which indicated that the ±45° plies have no significant influence on the failure strength of the 0° plies.