Interlaminate Deformation in Thermoplastic Composite Laminates: Experimental-Numerical Correlation

M. Shen^1a, J. Tong¹, S. Wang¹ and Y. Fang¹

¹ Department of Mechanics, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, PR China

^a e-mail : minshen@tju.edu.cn

Published online: 10 June 2010

Abstract

The interlaminar deformation behaviors of thermoplastic AS4/PEEK composite laminates subjected to static tensile loading are investigated by means of microscopic moiré interferometry with high spatial resolution. The fully threedimensional orthotropic elastic-plastic analysis of interlaminar deformation for the thermoplastic laminates is developed in this paper, and used to simulate the stress-strain curves of tensile experiment for its angle-ply laminates. Under uniaxial tensile loading, the 3D orthotropic elastic-plastic FE analysis and microscopic moiré interferometry of interlaminar deformations are carried out for the [±25]_S4 laminates. The quantitative local-filed experimental results of interlaminar shear strain and displacements at freeedge surface of the laminate are compared with corresponding numerical results of the orthotropic elastic-plastic FE model. It is indicated that the numerical tensile stressstrain curves of angle-ply laminates computed with 3D orthotropic elastic-plastic model are agree with experimental results. The numerical interlaminar displacement U and shear strain γ_xz are also consistent with the experimental results obtained by moiré interferometry. It is expected the elastic-plastic interlaminar stresses and deformations analysis for the optimal design and application of AS4/PEEK laminates and its structures.