Delamination of woven E-glass fabric composites.

摘要

An experimental/analytical study investigating delamination growth in E-glass fabric/polyester composites has been carried out. Double cantilever beam and end-notched flexure delamination specimens were tested and the measured data was compared to calculated results. A stacked shell finite element methodology has been developed to perform the analysis. This approach breaks the composite into sublaminate shells connected by springs spanning the delamination plane. The stacked shell analyses can use either a critical stress or a critical energy release rate criterion to propagate the delamination, and both criteria are shown to yield similar predictions. Role of connecting springs, and proper choice for spring constants has also been investigated in detail. The spring constants must be chosen in a physically meaningful way to develop consistent values of energy release rate, compliance, and the stress distribution ahead of the delamination. Calculated results for the double cantilever beam and end-notched flexure specimens are in good agreement with measured test data and continuum finite element solutions.