International Journal of Mechanical Sciences | 2019
An experimental and numerical study on the crush behaviour of hybrid unidirectional/woven carbon-fibre reinforced composite laminates
Abstract
Abstract In composite aircraft structures, woven carbon-fibre reinforced plies are often used as the surface plies of a monolithic composite panel, made from unidirectional plies, to mitigate damage during drilling and provide a measure of impact damage resistance. This research presents, for the first time, a detailed experimental and numerical study on the crush behaviour of hybrid unidirectional/woven carbon-fibre reinforced composite laminates. Quasi-static crush tests are performed on composite specimens with two different trigger geometries; a bevel-trigger and a steeple-trigger. A computational model, which accounts for both interlaminar and intralaminar damage in hybrid unidirectional (UD)/woven composite laminates, implemented as a user subroutine in Abaqus/Explicit, was used. A comparison between experimental and numerical results confirms the computational tool s accuracy in predicting the energy absorption and damage mechanisms of hybrid specimens. The proposed approach could significantly reduce the extent of physical testing required in the development of crashworthy structures.