• Composites Research
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.7-17
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• 2004

In this study, the effect of laminate thickness on the compressive behaviour of composite materials is investigated through systematic experimental work using the stacking sequences, $[O_4]_{ns},{\;}[45/0/-45/90]_{ns}$ and $[45_n/0_n/-45_n/90_n]_s$ (n=2 to 8). Parameters such as fibre volume fraction, void content, fibre waviness and interlaminar stresses, influencing compressive strength with increasing laminate thickness are also studied experimentally and theoretically. Furthermore the stacking sequence effects on failure strength of multidirectional laminates are examined. For this purpose, two different scaling techniques are used; (1) ply-level technique $[45_n/0_n/-45_n/90_n]s$ and (2) sublaminate level technique $[45/0/-45/90]_{ns}$. An apparent thickness effect existes in the lay-up with blocked plies, i.e. unidirectional specimens ($[O_4]_{ns}) and ply-level scaled multidirectional specimens ($[45_n/0_n/-45_n/90_n]_s$). Fibre waviness and void content are found to be main parameters contributing to the thickness effect on the compressive failure strength. However, the compressive strength of the sublaminate level scaled specimens ($[45/0/-45/90]_{ns}$) is almost unaffected regardless of the specimen thickness (since ply thickness remains constant). From the investigation of the stacking sequence effect, the strength values obtained from the sublaminate level scaled specimens are slightly higher than those obtained from the ply level scaled specimens. The reason for this effect is explained by the fibre waviness, void content, free edge effect and stress redistribution in blocked $0^{\circ}$ plies and unblocked $0^{\circ}$ plies. The measured failure strengths are compared with the predicted values.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers
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• v.12 no.5
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• pp.944-951
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• 1988

Global-Local Laminate Variational Model is utilized to investigate the characteristics of interlaminar stresses in thick composite laminates under uniform axial extension. Various laminates with different fiber orientation and stacking sequences are analyzed to observe the behavior of interlaminar normal stresses. From this result, the interlaminar normal stress distribution along the laminate interfaces is examined and discussed with an existing approximation model. The repeated stacking of Poisson's ratio symmetric sublaminates is found to be the best stacking method of thick composite laminates to reduce the interlaminar normal stresses for the prevention of the free-edge delamination.

• Proceedings of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute Conference
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• 1991.10a
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• pp.29-32
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• 1991

It is well known that the fatigue damage process in composite materials is very complicated due to complex failure mechanisms that comprise debounding, matrix cracking, delamination and fiber splitting of laminates. Therefore, the residual strength, instead of a single dominant crack length, is chosen to describe the criticality of the damage accumulated in the sublaminate. In this study, two models for residual strength degradation established by Yang-Liu and Tanimoto-Ishikawa that are capable of predicting the statistical distribution of both fatigue life and residual strength have been investigated and compared. Statistical methodologies for fatigue life prediction of composite materials have frequently been adopted. However, these are usually based on a simplified probabilistic approach considering only the variation of fatigue test data. The main object of this work is to propose a fatigue reliability analysis model which accounts for the effect of all sources of variation such as fabrication and workmanship, error in the fatigue model, load itself, etc. The proposed model is examined using the previous experimental data of GFRP and it is shown that it can be practically applied for fatigue problems in composite materials.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society For Composite Materials Conference
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• 2001.05a
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• pp.1-4
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• 2001

A new non-destructive fatigue prediction model of the composite laminates is developed. The natural frequencies of fatigue-damaged laminates under extensional loading are related to the fatigue lift of the laminates by establishing the equivalent flexural stiffness reduction as a function of the elastic properties of sublaminates. The flexural stiffness is derived by relating the $90^{\circ}$-ply elastic modulus reduction, and using the laminate plate theory to the degraded elastic modulus and the intact elastic modulus of other laminate. The natural frequency reduction model, in which the dominant fatigue mode can be identified from the sensitivity scale factors of sublaminate elastic properties, provides natural frequency vs. fatigue cycle curves for the composite laminates. Vibration tests were also conducted on $[\textrm{90}_{2}\textrm{0}_{2}]_s$ carbon/epoxy laminates to verify the natural frequency reduction model. Correlations between the predictions of the model and experimental results are good.

• Composites Research
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.1-9
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• 2001

A new non-destructive fatigue prediction model of the composite laminates is developed. The natural frequencies of fatigue-damaged laminates under extensional loading are related to the fatigue life of the laminates by establishing the equivalent flexural stiffness reduction as a function of the elastic properties of sublaminates. The flexural stiffness is derived by relating the 90-ply elastic modulus reduction, and using the laminate plate theory to the degraded elastic modulus and the intact elastic modulus of other laminates. The natural frequency reduction model, in which the dominant fatigue mode can be identified from the sensitivity scale factors of sublaminate elastic properties, provides natural frequency vs. fatigue cycle curves for the composite laminates. Vibration tests were also conducted on $[{90}_2/0_2]_s$ carbon/epoxy laminates to verify the natural frequency reduction model. Correlations between the predictions of the model and experimental results are good.