Experimental Verification of Hygrothermally Stable Laminates with Optimal Extension-Twist Coupling

摘要

Classes of hygrothermally stable elastically tailored laminates have been found in prior work for which extension-twist coupling is retained. A subset has been constructed, confirmed to be hygrothermally stable, and tested in the present work to demonstrate the level of out-of-plane coupling. The subset encompassed six- eight- and ten-ply laminates with maximum extension-twist coupling manufactured from T300/976 graphite/epoxy and tested in a biaxial tension-torsion machine. An optimized benchmark family was also manufactured and tested for comparison. All optimized laminates were shown to have higher extension-twist coupling and the six-ply laminate is shown to have the best coupling and weight-saving properties.