Compressive splitting response of glass-fiber reinforced unidirectional composites

An analytical and experimental study of the compressive behavior of unidire ctional glass/epoxy composites loaded in the fiber direction has been carri ed out for a range of fiber volume fractions. It was observed experimentall y that glass/epoxy composites failed predominantly by splitting at lower fi ber volume fractions (V-f) and by a combination of splitting and kinking at higher V-f. In contrast, carbon/epoxy composites were found to fail by kin king only. A mechanical model developed by Lee and Waas is used to predict the compressive strength of the composites. The predicted compressive stren gths were then compared with existing experimental data in the literature. The effectiveness of the model in including the effect of initial misalignm ent of fibers on the predicted compressive strengths has also been studied. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.