Content

Introduction

Effect of Delimitation

Needs

Available Technology

Goals

Timeline

References

Introduction
Composite Material

Recently, the application of fibre reinforced composite materials in

various branches of the technology (mechanical engineering, ship
building, aeronautics, civil engineering, car industry) has undergone a
huge development.

The basic advantage of the composites is their high strength-to-weight

ratio in comparison with the conventional structural materials.
Therefore, they are very suitable for application in load-bearing
structures, where the low weight is of primary concern.

Fibre reinforced composite materials are replacing standard isotropic

materials in many applications. Aerospace vehicles, aircraft, marine
equipment, and common items such as civil structures, prosthetic
devices, and sports equipment are currently being constructed of such
composite materials.

Drawback

A major drawback to laminated composite materials stems from the

manufacturing process used to construct them. Placing fabric or fibres
in strata to obtain a desired architecture allows resin rich layers to
form between fabric layers. These regions are without reinforcement
and are prone to develop discontinuities such as pores and voids.

The performance of the composite material at these locations is

dominated by the properties of the resin. Often the failure of a
composite structure begins with the separation of these layers or
delamination.

Effects of Delamination failures in Composite

Materials

The primary limitation of fibre reinforced composites is fracture

toughness, specifically delamination.

Delamination is a mode of failure for composite materials.

In laminated materials, repeated cyclic stresses, impact, and so on can

cause layers to separate, forming a mica-like structure of separate
layers, with significant loss of mechanical toughness.

The interface between these layers is typically not reinforced with

fibers and is the source of delamination or interlaminar fracture.
Porosity and other manufacturing related defects also introduce
nucleation sites for delamination.

The cause of fiber pull-out (another form of failure mechanism) and

delamination is weak bonding. Thus, delamination is an insidious
kind of failure as it develops inside of the material, without being
obvious on the surface, much like metal fatigue.

Delamination failure may be detected in the material by its sound;

solid composite has bright sound, while delaminated part sounds
dull, reinforced concrete sounds solid, whereas delaminated
concrete will have a light drum-like sound when exposed to a
dragged chain pulled across its surface.

Some manufacturers of carbon composite bike frames suggest to dispose of

the expensive frame after a particularly bad crash, because the impact could
develop defects inside the material.

Due to increasing use of composite materials in aviation, delamination is

increasingly an air safety concern, especially in the tail sections of the
airplanes

Therefore, the analysis of delamination in composites is an important

problem of the fracture mechanics. The focus of this study is on the
delamination and interlaminar fracture performance of composite materials.

Delamination of Composite Materials under compression load

Needs

Composite designers and engineers recognize delamination as a primary

failure mode. Unfortunately, modelling and predicting this behaviour is
not easy. In general, designers and engineers have the ability to
implement a stress analysis and utilize this in parallel with empirically
obtained strength data. In the case of engineering composites, fracture
toughness and delamination resistance are not as easily accounted for a
general need exists for an organized approach that designers can use to
evaluate and improve interlaminar fracture properties and capabilities.

Both analytical and experimental approaches are viable and will be

discussed.

Literature Survey (Available Technology)

Classical lamination theory can be applied to determine an

appropriate composite architecture. However, techniques for
designing a delamination resistant material with necessary
interlaminar fracture toughness properties for service, are not as
well established.

Testing procedures, failure criteria, and finite element analysis

techniques are at the engineers disposal to evaluate and predict
interlaminar fracture toughness of composite materials.

Standard test procedures have been applied to unidirectional

laminated composites to evaluate and quantify fracture toughness.
These procedures have been focused at the evaluation of resin
performance in composite architectures.

Goals
Ultimately the procedures and techniques used to quantify the
fracture toughness performance of composite specimens can be used
to predict failure of more complex composite structures. The
objective of this project is that to develop improved analytical
solution for delamination modelling of composite beams. The
following methods are include:

Calculation of the compliance and strain energy release rate of

delaminated composite beams under a general loading condition
by using higher order beam theory based on beam-on-elasticfoundation concept.

Application of the developed model to the few delamination

specimens and verification of the developed model by
experiments.

Construction of the R-Curve for glass/polyester composite.

To solve the above-mentioned problems, the concepts of linear

elastic fracture mechanics and the concepts of differential
equations are applied. The derivation of the formulae will be
performed by using the code MATHEMATICA.

Project Timeline
Phase-I

-------

Last week of February

Analytical model of Specimen

Phase-III

Last week of November

Introduction of Project synopsis

Phase-II

-------

------

Last week of April

Experiments and result and validation

References

K.Kaw, Mechanics of composite materials

Anderson, Fracture Mechanics

Standard Test Method for Mode I Interlaminar Fracture

Toughness of Unidirectional Fiber-Reinforced Polymer Matrix
Composites.

CHATTERJE S.N. (1991) Analysis of test specimens for

interlaminar mode II fracture toughness, Part 1. Elastic laminates,
Journal of Composite Materials.

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