SQUEEZING FLOW OF CONTINUOUS FIBER-REINFORCED COMPOSITES

An experiment is presented in which a model fibre-reinforced composite undergoes squeeze-flow. Results are presented for two different fibre lay-ups over a range of fibre volume fractions. The response of the m aterial is an initial rapid compression followed by a limiting deforma tion and a key feature of the experimental tests is their reproducibil ity. The experimental results show poor agreement with existing analyt ical treatments of the problem in which the material is modelled as an anisotropic continuum. Consequently, a two-dimensional finite element approach is developed in which the composite is treated as a Newtonia n fluid containing cylindrical voids that represent the fibres and con vect with the fluid. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.