The influence of local defects and nonlinear matrix behaviour on the failure process of fiber reinforced composites
- The premise for the development of improved failure criteria for fiber reinforced composites is the understanding of the failure processes on microscale. On microscale the local behaviour of the matrix polymer is crucial. It significantly differs from that found in macroscopic measurements. The present study is focused on the plastic material behaviour of a standard epoxy resin. Local plastic strains are measured in tensile test by using digital image correlation. A multilinear plastic law is implemented by the experimental data. The stress field arising in an idealised representative volume element of a unidirectional ply is analysed by finite element calculations. The change of the stress and strain field due to plastic deformation according to the multilinear plastic law is shown. The change leads to a shift of the critical locations where failure is likely to initiate. In addition, the failure type changes from stress based to strain based failure. The dominant role of the shearThe premise for the development of improved failure criteria for fiber reinforced composites is the understanding of the failure processes on microscale. On microscale the local behaviour of the matrix polymer is crucial. It significantly differs from that found in macroscopic measurements. The present study is focused on the plastic material behaviour of a standard epoxy resin. Local plastic strains are measured in tensile test by using digital image correlation. A multilinear plastic law is implemented by the experimental data. The stress field arising in an idealised representative volume element of a unidirectional ply is analysed by finite element calculations. The change of the stress and strain field due to plastic deformation according to the multilinear plastic law is shown. The change leads to a shift of the critical locations where failure is likely to initiate. In addition, the failure type changes from stress based to strain based failure. The dominant role of the shear strains is shown.…