The compressive response of polymer matrix fiber reinforced unidirectional
composites (PMC's) is investigated via a combination of experiment and anal
ysis. The study accounts for the nonlinear constitutive response of the pol
ymer matrix material and examines the effect of fiber geometric imperfectio
ns, fiber mechanical properties and fiber volume fraction on the measured c
ompressive strength and compressive failure mechanism. Glass and carbon fib
er reinforced unidirectional composite specimens are manufactured in-house
with fiber volume fractions ranging over 10 similar to 60 percent. Compress
ion test results with these specimens show that carbon fiber composites hav
e lower compressive strengths than glass fiber composites. Glass fiber comp
osites demonstrate a splitting failure mode for a range of low fiber volume
fractions and a simultaneous splitting/kink banding failure mode for high
fiber volume fractions. Carbon fiber composites show kink banding throughou
t the range of fiber volume fractions examined. Nonlinear material properti
es of the matrix, orthotropic material properties of the carbon fiber, init
ial geometric fiber imperfections and nonuniform fiber volume fraction are
all included in an appropriate finite element analysis to explain some of t
he observed experimental results. A new analytical model prediction of the
splitting failure mode shows that this failure mode is favorable for glass
fiber composites, which is in agreement with test results. Furthermore, thi
s model is able to show the influence of fiber mechanical properties, fiber
volume fraction and fiber geometry on the splitting failure mode.