Change search
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf
Micro-cracking and delaminations of composite laminates under tensile quasi-static and cyclic loading
Luleå University of Technology, Department of Engineering Sciences and Mathematics, Material Science.ORCID iD: 0000-0002-3322-8197
2019 (English)Doctoral thesis, comprehensive summary (Other academic)Alternative title
Mikrosprickor och delamineringar i kompositlaminat under kvasistatisk och cyklisk dragbelastning (Swedish)
Abstract [en]

Aerospace industry is devoted to improving the aircraft performance while reducing its weight and limiting the emissions. Part of this objective can be accomplished with the use of high-performance long fibre reinforced polymer laminated composites. Being the first mode of damage under loading, intralaminar cracks initiate at the free edge of the off-axis plies and propagate along the respective fibre orientation. While these cracks grow as tunnels and increase in number, at some point two close cracks in plies of different off-axis orientation could intersect forming an envelope with the free edge. As loading continues, local delamination is expected within this envelope. The evolution and interactions of the different damage modes and the accumulation of damage under a specific loading are crucial in order to have a good understanding of the mechanisms and hence an accurate prediction of the mechanical properties´ degradation. This thesis is devoted to initiation and evolution of intralaminar cracking in plies and interlayer delamination in composite laminates.

In the first part, quasi-isotropic Carbon Fibre/ Epoxy non-crimp fabric (NCF) laminates were studied under both quasi-static and cyclic loadings. The objective was to develop an efficient testing methodology for statistical damage evolution determination in Fatigue. The sequence of damage occurrences (intralaminar cracks in the different layers, delaminations at the different interfaces) loaded under quasi-static and tension-tension fatigue is first captured. To save characterisation time and costs, a simple model for predicting intralaminar cracking in laminates under cyclic loads was proposed and validated under low stress cyclic loads and low crack density. The model is based on Weibull distribution for the probability of cracking where part of parameters is obtained in quasi-static tests and part in a limited number of cyclic tests. The predictions of dependency of the cracking on the stress and number of cycles are validated against experimental observations of cracking in the 90-plies of quasi-isotropic NCF laminates as well as in tape based cross-ply laminates. In position where intralaminar cracks meet the specimen edge, local delaminations initiate due to the high 3D stress state. The delamination is further assisted by cracks in other off-axis plies, usually linking them. The average delamination length dependence on loading parameters is characterized and linked with the extent of the laminate stiffness reduction, showing using a simple ply-discount analysis that delaminations are the main reason for very large axial modulus reduction.

In the second part, local delaminations and their effect on laminate stiffness are analysed using FEM. Expressions for the crack opening displacement (COD) determined using FEM are obtained and a modelling approach based on GLOB-LOC is performed for intralaminar crack case with local delaminations starting from the intralaminar crack. The delamination length is used as a parameter and studies are performed for different materials. Strong effect of delaminations on COD and on the axial modulus of the laminate is found. Finally, the last findings are used to simulate the damaged composite laminate behaviour in 4-point bending test. The bending stiffness of the laminate is significantly reduced by intralaminar cracks with delaminations. An approach, using the concept of the effective stiffness of the damaged ply is used. The so obtained effective stiffness matrix is a function of intralaminar crack density in the ply and the delamination length. The effective stiffness is used to calculate the bending stiffness of the damaged laminate. The laminate curvature calculated in this way is in a very good agreement with the curvature obtained in 3-D FEM simulations of the test with explicitly including cracks and delaminations in the model.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Luleå: Luleå tekniska universitet, 2019.
Series
Doctoral thesis / Luleå University of Technology 1 jan 1997 → …, ISSN 1402-1544
Keywords [en]
Laminate, Fatigue, damage growth, stiffness reduction, NCF
National Category
Composite Science and Engineering
Research subject
Polymeric Composite Materials
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:ltu:diva-73393ISBN: 978-91-7790-356-7 (print)ISBN: 978-91-7790-357-4 (electronic)OAI: oai:DiVA.org:ltu-73393DiVA, id: diva2:1303134
Public defence
2019-06-04, E231, Lulea university of technology, 97187 Luleå, Sweden, Luleå, 09:00 (English)
Opponent
Supervisors
Available from: 2019-04-09 Created: 2019-04-08 Last updated: 2019-05-14Bibliographically approved
List of papers
1. Statistical model for initiation governed intralaminar cracking in composite laminates during tensile quasi-static and cyclic tests
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Statistical model for initiation governed intralaminar cracking in composite laminates during tensile quasi-static and cyclic tests
Show others...
2018 (English)In: International Journal of Fatigue, ISSN 0142-1123, E-ISSN 1879-3452, Vol. 116, p. 1-12Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

A simple model for predicting intralaminar cracking in laminates under cyclic loads is proposed and validated. The model is limited to low stresses and low crack density and is based on the assumption that the non-uniformity of the fiber distribution is the main reason for the observed large variation of cracking resistance along the transverse direction of the layer. Hence, the resistance variation in quasi-static and in cyclic loading can be described by the same parameter. At low crack density the failure resistance variation is more significant than the variation of the stress state in the specimen, the latter becoming dominant at high crack density. At low crack density the Weibull distribution for probability of intralaminar cracking is used for crack density growth simulation during cyclic loading. Assuming the non-uniformity of the fiber distribution as the cause for variation of cracking resistance, the Weibull shape parameter in cyclic loading is the same as in quasi-static loading case while the scale parameter is assumed to degrade with the applied number of cycles and this dependence is described by a power function. Thus, the determination of parameters is partially done using quasi-static tests and partially using cyclic tests, significantly reducing the necessary testing time. The predictions of dependency of the cracking on the stress and number of cycles are validated against experimental observations of cracking in the 90-plies of quasi-isotropic non-crimp fabric (NCF) laminates as well as in tape based cross-ply laminates.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Elsevier, 2018
National Category
Composite Science and Engineering
Research subject
Polymeric Composite Materials
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:ltu:diva-69097 (URN)10.1016/j.ijfatigue.2018.05.030 (DOI)000450377100001 ()2-s2.0-85048258679 (Scopus ID)
Note

Validerad;2018;Nivå 2;2018-06-21 (svasva)

Available from: 2018-06-04 Created: 2018-06-04 Last updated: 2023-09-12Bibliographically approved
2. Intralaminar cracking and speciemen edge interaction induced local delamiantions in quasi-isotropic CF/EP NCF Composites in fatigue
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Intralaminar cracking and speciemen edge interaction induced local delamiantions in quasi-isotropic CF/EP NCF Composites in fatigue
(English)In: Article in journal (Refereed) Submitted
National Category
Engineering and Technology
Research subject
Material Mechanics
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:ltu:diva-73513 (URN)
Available from: 2019-04-08 Created: 2019-04-08 Last updated: 2019-04-08
3. Effective stiffness concept in bending modeling of laminates with damage in surface 90-layers
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Effective stiffness concept in bending modeling of laminates with damage in surface 90-layers
Show others...
2016 (English)In: Composites. Part A, Applied science and manufacturing, ISSN 1359-835X, E-ISSN 1878-5840, Vol. 82, p. 244-252Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

Simple approach based on Classical Laminate Theory (CLT) and effective stiffness of damaged layer is suggested for bending stiffness determination of laminate with intralaminar cracks in surface 90-layers and delaminations initiated from intralaminar cracks. The effective stiffness of a layer with damage is back-calculated comparing the in-plane stiffness of a symmetric reference cross-ply laminate with and without damage. The in-plane stiffness of the damaged reference cross-ply laminate was calculated in two ways: 1) using FEM model of representative volume element (RVE) and 2) using the analytical GLOB-LOC model. The obtained effective stiffness of a layer at varying crack density and delamination length was used to calculate the A, B and D matrices in the unsymmetrically damaged laminate. The applicability of the effective stiffness in CLT to solve bending problems was validated analyzing bending of the damaged laminate in 4-point bending test which was also simulated by 3-D FEM.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Elsevier, 2016
National Category
Composite Science and Engineering
Research subject
Polymeric Composite Materials
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:ltu:diva-3182 (URN)10.1016/j.compositesa.2015.11.012 (DOI)000370997000026 ()2-s2.0-84956666458 (Scopus ID)0f8f7712-3d80-40ce-94ac-1c1535b54d62 (Local ID)0f8f7712-3d80-40ce-94ac-1c1535b54d62 (Archive number)0f8f7712-3d80-40ce-94ac-1c1535b54d62 (OAI)
Note

Validerad; 2016; Nivå 2; 20151117 (andbra)

Available from: 2016-09-29 Created: 2016-09-29 Last updated: 2022-10-27Bibliographically approved
4. Effect of intralaminar cracking induced local delaminations on laminate stiffness
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Effect of intralaminar cracking induced local delaminations on laminate stiffness
(English)In: Article in journal (Refereed) Submitted
National Category
Engineering and Technology
Research subject
Material Mechanics
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:ltu:diva-73514 (URN)
Available from: 2019-04-08 Created: 2019-04-08 Last updated: 2019-04-08

Open Access in DiVA

fulltext(18187 kB)4000 downloads
File information
File name FULLTEXT01.pdfFile size 18187 kBChecksum SHA-512
a2e4c5608b78dd0f05a79217f936d8cdd083c15f9020d1aa41c6e11b6dd3c8ec695a943dc5132281d7e63b131cc2d6afedb68f065882f8cdc7d1f819d30bbda6
Type fulltextMimetype application/pdf

Authority records

Ben Kahla, Hiba

Search in DiVA

By author/editor
Ben Kahla, Hiba
By organisation
Material Science
Composite Science and Engineering

Search outside of DiVA

GoogleGoogle Scholar
Total: 4007 downloads
The number of downloads is the sum of all downloads of full texts. It may include eg previous versions that are now no longer available

isbn
urn-nbn

Altmetric score

isbn
urn-nbn
Total: 1224 hits
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf