Fracture Behavior of Three-dimensional Braided Composites

Abstract

Internal defects in three-dimensional (3D) braided composites may affect the mechanical properties greatly and result in fracture failure. Due to the complexity of the crack problems of braided composites, it is significant to develop some numerical simulation methods to study the crack-tip fields. In this paper, the fracture behaviors of 3D four-directional braided composites are investigated. In order to calculate the stress intensity factor of the crack in 3-D braided composites, this work adopts a modified interaction integral method in conjunction with the finite element method (FEM). This interaction integral method can deal with complex interfaces in 3D braided composites.