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Investigating Transverse Ply Thickness and Cracking Effects on the Tensile Strain to Failure of Thin-Ply, Cross-Ply Carbon Composites Using X-Ray Computed Tomography
Abstract
The effect of 90°-ply thickness on the fibre direction tensile failure strain of crossply laminates was investigated by designing four different cross-ply composite laminate configurations with 90° blocks of varying numbers of plies adjacent to a central block of 0° plies. The range of 90° block thicknesses evaluated included conventional ply thicknesses to allow for comparisons with conventional ply geometries. The central 0° ply block was subjected to primarily longitudinal tension with a small component of transverse tension due to the layup and thermal residual stresses. Advanced instrumentation, including acoustic emission and X-ray computed tomography, was used to detect and visualize damage accumulation in the specimens. It was found that decreasing the thickness of the 90° ply blocks reduced transverse matrix microcracking up to the point where no full-width transverse cracks developed prior to ultimate failure. A small degradation of the fibre direction failure strain in the central 0° plies was found as the 90°-layer thickness increased in the laminates, which corresponded with the development of edge/transverse cracks.
DOI
10.12783/asc35/34887
10.12783/asc35/34887