Failure of Precracked Fiber Reinforced Composite Plate

Author: Mahale, Narayan Krishna

Year: 1973

Degree: Engineer's thesis

Advisors: Knauss, Wolfgang Gustav; Babcock, Charles D.

Committee Member: Unknown, Unknown

Option: Aeronautics

DOI: 10.7907/DPK2-YA94

Abstract

In the following pages a theoretical and experimental investigation of the fracture of a precracked carbon fiber reinforced composite is presented. The work deals mainly with a unidirectional composite having the crack aligned parallel to the fibers. We put forth some ideas on how to extend the failure criterion of the above restricted case to a more general one of multidirectional composites. The failure criterion proposed is based on an energy argument similar to that proposed by Griffith for isotropic solids. For the purpose of stress analysis the material under consideration is assumed to be homogeneous and orthotropic. Lekhnitskii's complex variable method of stress analysis of the two dimensional elasticity problems for anisotropic bodies is used in the theoretical investigation.

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