ANALYSIS OF STRESS CONCENTRATIONS IN UNIDIRECTIONAL COMPOSITES TAKING INTO ACCOUNT THE TENSILE LOAD IN THE MATRIX

A modified shear-lag model accounting for the effect of the tensile stiffness of the ma, trix is proposed for solving the stress redistribution due to the failure of fibers and matrix in unidirectionally fibre-reinforced composites. The advantages of this model are simple, reasonable and accurate by comparison with the other similar modified shear-lag models. It can be further extended to study the stress redistribution with interfacial damage between fibres and matrix This paper quantitatively dis cusses the influence of the tensile stiffness ratio of matrix to fibre and of the fibre volume fraction on the stress concentration in the fibres and ma trix adjacent to cut fibres and matrix, and suggests that the influence of the matrix stiffness on the stress concentration can be neglected when the matrix stiffness is low, such as polymer matrix composites, and the fibre volume fraction is high. For other cases such as ceramic and metal matrix composites, the tensile load of the matrix cannot be neglected in the shear-lag analysis.

Determination of thermal expansion coefficients for unidirectional fiber-reinforced composites

In the present work, the coefficients of thermal expansion（CTEs） of unidirectional（UD）fiber-reinforced composites are studied. First, an attempt is made to propose a model to predict both longitudinal and transverse CTEs of UD composites by means of thermo-elastic mechanics analysis. The proposed model is supposed to be a concentric cylinder with a transversely isotropic fiber embedded in an isotropic matrix, and it is subjected to a uniform temperature change. Then a concise and explicit formula is offered for each CTE. Finally, some finite element（FE） models are created by a finite element program MSC. Patran according to different material systems and fiber volume fractions. In addition, the available experimental data and results of other analytical solutions of CTEs are presented. Comparisons are made among the results of the cylinder model,the finite element method（FEM）, experiments, and other solutions, which show that the predicted CTEs by the new model are in good agreement with the experimental data. In particular, transverse CTEs generally offer better agreements than those predicted by most of other solutions.

Compressive failure analysis of unidirectional carbon/epoxy composite based on micro-mechanical models

A 2D micro-mechanical model was proposed to study the compressive failure of Uni Directional（UD） carbon/epoxy composite. Considering the initial imperfection and strength distribution of the fiber, the plasticity and ductile damage of the matrix, the failure of T300/914 UD composite under longitudinal compression and in-plane combined loads was simulated by this model. Simulation results show that the longitudinal compressive failure of the UD composite is caused by the plastic yielding of the matrix in kink band, and the fiber initial imperfection is the main reason for it. Under in-plane combined loads, the stress state of the matrix in kink band is changed, which affects the longitudinal compressive failure modes and strength of UD composite.The failure envelope of r_1–s_（12） and r_1–r_2 are obtained by the micro-mechanical model. Meanwhile,the compressive failure mechanism of the UD composite is analyzed. Numerical results agree well with the experimental data, which verifies the validity of the micro-mechanical model.