A Framework for Experimental-Numerical Analysis of Woven Laminates Failure

Abstract

Woven composite laminates have been widely used in various application and rapidly replacing unidirectional composite laminates. Thus, it is vital to understand clearly their material parameters and characteristic. Apparently, it is very difficult to analyse the design parameters of a unidirectional composite laminate, and thus due to its weaving structure, analysing numerically the parameters of a woven composite laminate is even more difficult. Therefore, this paper aims to review the work related to woven laminates with respect to its testing and simulations. During the initial stage, a tensile test is conducted according to ASTM D3039 on the 2×2 twill weave carbon fibre woven prepeg where the material constants (E1, E2, G12 and ν12) and the deformation behaviour will be obtained. The later stage will involve the development of a finite element modelling and simulation by means of commercial finite element package ANSYS 14.0 to replicate the experimental set-up. Ultimately, the outcomes and findings between the experimental and numerical approaches will be compared and reported.