Experimental and analytical study on fiber-kinking failure mode of laminated composites

Compressive behavior of composite materials has received significant attention in recent years. In the present work, a recently developed strain based fiber kinking model and stress based ones for unidirectional laminated composites are compared with experimental results. These models are implemented into a finite element code and the obtained results for glass/epoxy (Type C) ASNA 4197 unidirectional composites are presented and discussed in detail. Experimental investigations on compressive strength and kink band formation were also performed for several specimens with various dimensions and off-axis angles made of the same glass/epoxy prepreg composite material. A special compressive fixture was also fabricated in order to ensure that the specimens are in full contact with the loading machine elements and also to eliminate the potential bending moments. Comparison between the experimental and analytical results indicated that the proposed fiber kinking model and the developed code can be used to predict the compressive strength of laminated composites due to fiber kinking mode. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.