• 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.

• Composites Research
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.327-334
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• 2019

The delamination is a special mode of failure occurring in composite laminates. Several numerical studies with finite element analysis have been carried out on the delamination behavior of unidirectional composite laminates. On the other hand, the fracture for the multi-directional composite laminates may occur not only along the resin-fiber interface between plies known as interply or interlaminar fracture but also within a ply known as interyarn or intralaminar fracture accompanied by matrix cracking and fiber bridging. In addition, interlaminar and intralaminar cracks appear at irregular proportions and intralaminar cracks proceeded at arbitrary angle. The probabilistic analysis method for the prediction of crack growth behavior within a layer is more advantageous than the deterministic analysis method. In this paper, we analyze the crack path when the mode I load is applied to the cross-ply carbon/epoxy composite laminates and collect and analyze the probability data to be used as the basis of the probabilistic analysis in the future. Two criteria for the theoretical analysis of the crack growth direction were proposed by analyzing the stress field at the crack tip of orthotropic materials. Using the proposed method, the crack growth directions of the cross-ply carbon/epoxy laminates were analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively and compared with experimental results.