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Composites: Part B 55 (2013) 119127

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Composites: Part B
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/compositesb

Compressive damage mechanism of GFRP composites under off-axis loading: Experimental and numerical investigations
H.W. Zhou a,, H.Y. Yi a, L.L. Gui a, G.M. Dai b, R.D. Peng a, H.W. Wang c, Leon Mishnaevsky Jr. b,
a

State Key Laboratory of Coal Resources and Safe Mining, China University of Mining and Technology, Beijing 100083, China Department of Wind Energy, Ris Campus, Technical University of Denmark, DK-4000 Roskilde, Denmark c School of Mechanical Engineering, Tianjin University of Commerce, Tianjin 300134, China
b

a r t i c l e

i n f o

a b s t r a c t
Experimental and computational studies of the microscale mechanisms of damage formation and evolution in unidirectional glass ber reinforced polymer composites (GFRP) under axial and off-axis compressive loading are carried out. A series of compressive testing of the composites with different angles between the loading vector and ber direction were carried out under scanning electron microscopy (SEM) in situ observation. The damage mechanisms as well as stress strain curves were obtained in the experiments. It was shown that the compressive strength of composites drastically reduces when the angle between the ber direction and the loading vector goes from 0 to 45 (by 2.32.6 times), and then slightly increases (when the angle approaches 8090). At the low angles between the ber and the loading vector, ber buckling and kinking are the main mechanisms of ber failure. With increasing the angle between the ber and applied loading, failure of glass bers is mainly controlled by shear cracking. For the computational analysis of the damage mechanisms, 3D multiber unit cell models of GFRP composites and X-FEM approach to the fracture modeling were used. The computational results correspond well to the experimental observations. 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Article history: Received 2 May 2013 Received in revised form 5 June 2013 Accepted 9 June 2013 Available online 19 June 2013 Keywords: A. Polymermatrix composites (PMCs) B. Strength C. Finite element analysis (FEA) C. Computational modeling D. Electron microscopy

1. Introduction Glass ber reinforced polymer (GFRP) composites are characterized by the high ratio of strength to weight and has been widely applied in wind turbine blades, among others [1]. Under service conditions, wind turbine blades are subject to the external loading, which includes the apwise and edgewise bending loads, gravitational loads, inertia forces, loads due to pitch acceleration, as well as torsional loading. The apwise and edgewise bending loads cause high longitudinal, tensile and compressive stresses in the material. The upwind side of the blades is subject to tensile stresses, while the downwind side is subject to compression. Thus, the analysis of the effect of the strength and behavior of wind blade composites under off-axis and compressive loading is of great importance for their practical applications, and can be used as a basis for improving the wind turbine reliability. The microscale mechanisms of the composite damage and failure under compressive off-axis loadings have been studied in a number of works. Lee and Waas [3] observed that glass ber composites demonstrate a splitting failure mode for a range of low
Corresponding authors. Tel.: +86 10 62331286; fax: +86 10 62331490 (H.W. Zhou), tel.: +45 46775729; fax: +45 46775758 (L. Mishnaevsky). E-mail addresses: zhw@cumtb.edu.cn (H.W. Zhou), lemi@dtu.dk (L. Mishnaevsky Jr.).
1359-8368/$ - see front matter 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.compositesb.2013.06.007

ber volume fractions and a simultaneous splitting/kink banding failure mode for high ber volume fractions. Hahn et al. [4] tested a ber bundle embedded in epoxy casting and tested in compression. They observed that the failure of Kevlar 49 and P-75 graphite is controlled by kinking of brils, while other bers (T300 and T700 graphite and E-glass) failed by localized microbuckling. Hahn and Williams [5] summarized compression failure mechanisms in UD composites, and concluded that the predominant microscopic scale failure mode is being shear crippling (in the form of buckling of bers in a soft resin, and as the formation of a kink band in stiff resins). Piggott and Harris [6] studied composites reinforced with carbon, glass and aromatic polyamide bers under compression. They observed the Rule of Mixtures behavior in glass-polyester composites up to the volume fractions (Vf) of 0.31 for strength and 0.46 for elastic modulus. At higher volume fraction, the composite strength is proportional to the matrix yield strength. For the same matrix yield strength a composite with an epoxy resin matrix was stronger than polyester based composites. At Vf = 0.30, carbon ber composites are only slightly less stiff and weaker in compression lez and Llorca [7] studied experimentally than in tension. Gonza and numerically the micromechanisms of damage in UD carbon or glass under transverse compression. They observed dominant damage mechanisms, interface decohesion and matrix plastic

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