Failure analysis of fiber-reinforced composites subjected to coupled thermo-mechanical loading

Ye, Junjie and Wang, Y. and Li, Z. and Saafi, M. and Jia, F. and Huang, B. and Ye, J. (2020) Failure analysis of fiber-reinforced composites subjected to coupled thermo-mechanical loading. Composite Structures, 235: 111756. ISSN 0263-8223

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Abstract

Structures made of fiber reinforced composites have captured extensive attentions in the scientific and en-gineering communities due to their excellent performance and applicability. When these structures are in ser-vice, they are likely exposed to variations of ambient temperature that may have an impact on their strength. To study this effect, a coupled thermo-mechanical model is required. This paper develops a microscopic mechanical model to investigate failure of composite structures subjected to a coupled thermo-mechanical condition. Stiffness degradations of composite laminates are first investigated. A comparison between experimental data and theoretical results under the quasi-static loadings are presented to validate the proposed method. The method provides detailed microscopic stress distribution of the composites under the coupled thermo-me-chanical loading for failure analysis, which shows that a higher ambient temperature variation will generally cause stiffness degradation and failure strength for both uniaxially and biaxially loaded laminates.