Temperature-dependent response of quasi-unidirectional E-glass fabric reinforced polypropylene composites under off-axis tensile loading.

The temperature-dependent off-axis tensile behavior of quasi-unidirectional E-glass fabric reinforced polypropylene composites has been investigated both experimentally and constitutively in this paper. The nonlinearity in composites under off-axis loading is shown to be a combination of damage and plasticity regardless of temperature. A nonlinear constitutive model is established to predict the temperature-dependent nonlinear stress-strain curves of composites, in which the accumulation of plastic strain and evolution of damage in composites are described by the plasticity and damage theories, respectively. A full suite of temperature-dependent plastic and damage parameters in the model are determined through cyclic loading-unloading tests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]