Stress and failure analysis of woven composite plates with adhesive patch-reinforced circular hole

摘要

The application of a single-sided patch reinforcement to a woven E-glass fiber/epoxy composite panel with a central circular fastener hole is studied using three-dimensional finite element analysis. The width of the panel is 25.4 mm, while three hole diameters (3, 6 and 9 mm) are used in the study. The reinforcement patch is square in shape and is made of either E-glass fiber/epoxy or carbon fiber/epoxy laminae, with the patch-to-panel-thickness varying from 0.1 to 0.7. To simulate the ‘fastened’ condition, the patch-reinforced panel is bolted to a mild steel bar, which is fixed in the direction normal to the panel. One end of the panel is subject to unidirectional tensile load while the other end is under clamped boundary conditions. The through-thickness stress distributions and the failure loads of the patch-reinforced panels are evaluated by finite element analysis. Contact elements are used to account for interaction between contact surfaces. Experiments are also performed to verify the model.