THE EFFECT OF PLY ORIENTATION ON THE PEAK AND DELAMINATION THRESHOLD LOADS OF CFRP COMPOSITE PLATES

摘要

Although fibre reinforced composites can carry large in-plane loads they have poorer mechanical properties for transverse loading. A low velocity transverse impact can generate failure such as matrix cracking and/or delamination. Delamination though not visible, can significantly reduce the in-plane strength of the composite. This paper examines how the sense of a particular ply can affect the delamination threshold and maximum loads. This investigation was carried out with two families of composite plates, having the following configurations 0{sub}3/β/0{sub}3/90{sub}3/45{sub}3/-45{sub}3 and 0{sub}3/β/0{sub}12, where β = 0°, 30°, 45°, 60° and 90°. In both, cases the load increased with β, with the exclusion of a drop in the peak load, obtained for the 0{sub}3/90/0{sub}12 plate, the reason being its cross ply nature.