Experimental assessment of the mechanical behaviour of 3D woven composite T-joints

Yan, Shibo; Zeng, Xuesen; Long, Andrew

Abstract

To understand the influence of the fibre architecture of 3D woven composite T-joints on mechanical performance, as well as the benefits that 3D woven T-joints can offer over the equivalent 2D laminates, experimental testing is performed on two types of 3D woven T-joint with only weave variation at the junction, and one type of 2D woven laminate T-joint. A quasi-static tensile pull-off loading is selected in this work as this out-of-plane load case is one of the typical loading conditions for such T-joint structures. The significant advantages of 3D woven composite T-joints in terms of ultimate strength and damage tolerance over the 2D alternative were identified in the testing. More importantly, this work showed that variation in the fibre architecture can considerably enhance properties such as delamination resistance and total energy absorption to failure, as well as increasing slightly the stiffness and initial failure load. This experimental assessment has demonstrated that using 3D woven reinforcements is an effective way to improve the load-bearing capability of composite T-joints over laminates, and also that this improvement could be optimised with regard to fibre architecture.

Citation

Yan, S., Zeng, X., & Long, A. (2018). Experimental assessment of the mechanical behaviour of 3D woven composite T-joints. Composites Part B: Engineering, 154, 108-113. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compositesb.2018.08.007

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Aug 2, 2018
• Online Publication Date: Aug 4, 2018
• Publication Date: Dec 1, 2018
• Deposit Date: Mar 15, 2019
• Publicly Available Date: Aug 5, 2019
• Journal: Composites Part B: Engineering
• Print ISSN: 1359-8368
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 154
• Pages: 108-113
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compositesb.2018.08.007
• Keywords: 3-Dimensional reinforcement; Mechanical properties; Damage tolerance; Mechanical testing
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1657254
• Publisher URL: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1359836818304451?via%3Dihub