The bending properties of integrally woven and unidirectional prepreg T-sections

摘要

The relative bending properties of T-sections produced from three-dimensional (3D) integrally woven preforms and unidirec- tional prepreg have been investigated with respect to their stress-strain behaviour, skin-stiffener separation loads and fracture behaviour. These tests were carried out to simulated localised skin-stiffener separation that is normally responsible for the failure of postbuckling blade-stiffened composite structures. It has been found that the woven T-sections performed better than their prepreg counterpart in terms of initial and peak failure loads, while at he same time also sustaining less damage which is more contained.