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The fracture process of composite laminates subjected to static or fatigue tensile loading involves sequential accumulation of intra- and interlaminar damage, in the form of transverse cracking, splitting and delamination, prior to catastrophic failure. Matrix cracking parallel to the fibres in the off-axis plies is the first damage mode observed. Since a damaged lamina within the laminate retains certain amount of its load-carrying capacity, it is important to predict accurately the stiffness properties of the laminate as a function of damage as well as progression of damage with the strain state. In this paper, theoretical modelling of matrix cracking in the off-axis plies of unbalanced symmetric composite laminates subjected to in-plane tensile loading is presented and discussed. A 2-D shear-lag analysis is used to determine ply stresses in a representative segment and the equivalent laminate concept is applied to derive expressions for Mode I, Mode II and the total strain energy release rate associated with off-axis ply cracking. Dependence of the degraded stiffness properties and strain energy release rates on the crack density and ply orientation angle is examined for glass/epoxy laminates. Suitability of a mixed mode fracture criterion to predict the cracking onset strain is also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The tensile properties of high strength polyacrylonitrile-based (IM600) and high modulus pitch-based (K13D) hybrid carbon fibers-reinforced epoxy matrix composite (CFRP) were investigated. Fiber orientation of the hybrid CFRP specimen was set to [0/0]. The fiber volume fraction of the hybrid CFRP specimen was 55.7 vol% (IM600: 29.3 vol%, K13D: 26.4 vol%). The tensile stress-strain curve of the hybrid CFRP specimen shows a complicated shape (jagged trace). By the high modulus K13D CFRP layers, the hybrid CFRP specimen shows the intermediate modulus in the initial stage of loading. Subsequently, when the K13D CFRP layers begin to fail, the high strength IM600 CFRP layers would hold the load (strength) and the material continues to endure high load without instantaneous failure. Because higher strength fiber can help the load for a certain time after failure occur, the hybrid composite could be considered one example of a material possessing preventing instantaneous failure. The Weibull statistical distributions of the mono (IM600 and K13D) and the hybrid CFRP specimens were also examined. The Weibull modulus for the mono CFRP specimens was calculated to be 22.9 for the IM600 CFRP specimen and 14.4 for the K13D CFRP specimen, respectively. The Weibull modulus for the hybrid CFRP specimen was calculated to be 39.6 for the initial fracture strength and 20.6 for the tensile fracture strength, respectively. The Weibull modulus for the initial fracture strength is higher than that for the K13D CFRP specimen and the Weibull modulus for the tensile fracture strength is almost similar to that for the IM600 CFRP specimen. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]