Compressive behaviour of Kevlar 49 fibres and composites

The low compressive strength of Kevlar 49® unidirectional composites cannot be satisfactorily explained in terms of current theories which assume that failure is due to the matrix material. For a given matrix, Kevlar 49 composites are considerably weaker in compression than those based on other comparable high strength, high modulus filaments. Fracture is found to occur before any plastic deformation of the matrix is observed.