Assessment of composite failure and ultimate strength without experiment on composite

Abstract

This paper attempts to estimate the ultimate strength of a laminated composite only based on its constituent properties measured independently. Three important issues involved have been systematically addressed, i.e., stress calculation for the constituent fiber and matrix materials, failure detection for the lamina and laminate upon the internal stresses in their constituents, and input data determination of the constituents from monolithic measurements. There are three important factors to influence the accuracy of the strength prediction. One is the stress concentration factor (SCF) in the matrix. Another is matrix plasticity. The third is thermal residual stresses in the constituents. It is these three factors, however, that have not been sufficiently well realized in the composite community. One can easily find out the elastic and strength parameters of a great many laminae and laminates in the current literature. Unfortunately, necessary information to determine the SCF, the matrix plasticity, and the thermal residual stresses of the composites is rare or incomplete. A useful design methodology is demonstrated in the paper.