Compressive splitting response of glass-fiber reinforced unidirectional composites

An analytical and experimental study of the compressive behavior of unidirectional glass/epoxy composites loaded in the fiber direction has been carried out for a range of fiber volume fractions. It was observed experimentally that glass/epoxy composites failed predominantly by splitting at lower fiber volume fractions (V-f) and by a combination of splitting and kinking at higher V-f. In contrast, carbon/epoxy composites were found to fail by kinking only. A mechanical model developed by Lee and Waas is used to predict the compressive strength of the composites. The predicted compressive strengths were then compared with existing experimental data in the literature. The effectiveness of the model in including the effect of initial misalignment of fibers on the predicted compressive strengths has also been studied. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.