PSI - Issue 61

Yogesh Kumar et al. / Procedia Structural Integrity 61 (2024) 322–330 Y. Kumar et al., / Structural Integrity Procedia 00 (2019) 000 – 000

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the formation of the fracture plane in 90° region corresponding to the inter-fiber failure in unidirectional composites (D’haen et al., 2022; May et al., 2020; M Rezasefat et al., 2021). Due to fracture plane and debris formation, the load transferred to the outer edge of the samples with 0° plies, where the fibers continued to experience the force and led to the formation of a fiber kinking band at the very tip of the sample (Yuan et al., 2001). The fiber bridging can be observed in each test case, resulting from the intralaminar failure within the 0° ply. The intensity of the fiber bridging reduced with the increased number of the plies in the sample (illustrated in the red box). Also, the increased number of the 90° plies restricted the propagation of the interlaminar failure in the sample. The magnitude of the generated fracture plane ranged between 53° to 60° which is closer to the analytical estimation provided by Puck's 3D inter fiber failure fracture plane (Guo et al., 2023; M. Rezasefat et al., 2021a; Wiegand et al., 2008).

Fig. 3. Shows the undeformed samples (top) and the different failure modes in the 4 ply, 6 ply, and 8 ply sample under quasi-static in-plane compression loading (bottom).

4.2. Numerical results: Double cantilever beam (DCB) and Quasi-static in-plane compression

In this study, we have developed two 3D finite element model for predicting the Mode-I fracture energy (Fig. 4) and the global response of the carbon-fiber reinforced polymer composites (Fig. 5).

Fig. 4. (a) Zero-thickness cohesive elements-based FEM model developed for estimation of Mode-I fracture energy utilizing bi-linear traction separation formulation. (b) Comparison of the force-displacement response obtained through the calibration model and the experimental study performed by (Ramji et al., 2020b).