Experimental and numerical monitoring of strain gradients in notched composites under tension loading

摘要

Experimental tensile tests have been carried out to investigate the effect of progressive damage within notched, quasi-isotropic T650/F584 carbon fibcr/epoxy laminates on the strain distribution in the vicinity of the notch. Three-dimensional Digital image correlation was used during quasi-static tests to obtain the distribution of strains as a function of applied stress. A finite element model was developed using Abaqus and Digimat in which Digimat was used to implement the damage evolution model via a user-defined material subroutine. Damage initiation has been assessed using Hashin's failure criteria and Matzenmiller model was adopted for damage evolution. Numerical and experimental strain results were presented and compared for different section lines on the outer surface of the laminate at different load stages. The experimental notched composite strength was compared as well with the predicted one from finite element solution.