Compressive strength of unidirectional composites: evaluation and comparison of prediction models

摘要

The analytical models to study the behavior of unidirectional (UD) composites under compressive loading along the fibre direction are either based on microbuckling or kinding of fibres. In reality both of these mechanisms are together responsible for the failure with chinking following the microbuckling of fibres. The present work evaluates and compares some of the existing models proposed for predicting the compressive strength of UD composites along the fibre direction. It is an attempt to evaluate analytical models that can be used for the design purposes with a greater degree of confidence, and are easy to use and computationally simple.