Meso-scale analysis of ductile steel fabric/epoxy composites: numerical modelling and experimental validation

摘要

This paper studies the mechanical behavior of steel fiber fabric reinforced epoxy composite on meso scale. The fabric involved is a 4-harness satin weave of innovative steel fibers with a 30 μm diameter. Static tensile tests have been conducted on 4-layer laminates in both principal directions. Mechanical properties were determined based on strain gauge results and full field strain maps were monitored using the Digital Image Correlation technique. Microscopy was performed during the loading process on a polished edge of the coupons. In addition to the experimental study, a finite element unit cell model has been designed based on micro-CT scans of the fabric architecture. An elastic-plastic constitutive behavior was incorporated for both yarns and matrix, in order to fully capture the toughness of this novel material. Both experiments and simulations show that the ductility of the steel fibers could be exploited even more if the cracking of the non-loadbearing yarns could be delayed.