Experimental and Numerical Investigation on the Three Point Bending Response of Highly Anisotropic Composite Beam

Abstract

Three major damage modes exist in the low velocity impact (LVI) induced damage of carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) laminated composite materials, including fiber breakage, matrix cracking and delamination. The enriched damage mechanisms and the interaction between the damage modes makes the problem profoundly challenging to predict and simulate. The interaction between the transverse matrix cracking and delamination often cause a featured “pine tree†shape for the impact damage and this paper aims at isolating this interaction phenomenon by studying the behavior of a “sandwich-like†[0/90/0/909]s laminated composite beam subjected to three point bending loading (3PB). 2D digital image correlation (DIC) was used to capture the in-situ deformation of the composite beam. A 3D finite element method (FEM) based model was built where a novel Multi Scale Damage and Failure (MSDF) modeling was implemented to capture the damage initiation and propagation. The model results are found to be very good agreement with the experimental observations.