C onlpo.~itc~: Purr A 27A ( 1996) 447m4% Published by Elscvier Science Limited Printed in Great Britain.

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1359~835X!96:$15.(Kl

On the tensile composites

failure

of 3D woven

Brian N. Cox, Mahyar

S. Dadkhah

and W. L. Morris
USA

Rockwell Science Center, 1049 Camino DOS Rios, Thousand Oaks, CA 91360, (Received 72 April 1995; accepted 30 October 7995)

Tensile tests are reported for some graphite/epoxy composites with three-dimensional woven interlock reinforcement. Composite failure consists of the accumulation of discrete tow rupture events distributed over a band of damage typically lo-20mm wide. Load-displacement data for gauges spanning the band indicate work of fracture values ranging from 0.4 to 1.1 MJ m-2. Most of these unusually high values derives

from the ability of the composite to sustain loads near peak load (-1 GPa) for displacements significantly beyond those at which tows have all failed. The key mechanism is very strong friction or lockup that couples sliding, broken tows to the surrounding composite. Lockup is the product of the geometrical irregularity of nominally straight tows and clamping compressive stresses generated by the through-thickness reinforcement. Lesser contributions to the work of fracture arise from plastic straightening of tows prior to their rupture and the relatively easy but prolonged pull-out of tows following failure of the lockup mechanism.
(Keywords: three-dimensional woven composites; tensile behaviour; damage mechanisms; work of fracture)

INTRODUCTION The mechanical properties of graphite/epoxy composites with three-dimensional (3D) woven interlock reinforcement have been studied extensively by the present authorsip and others 7mlo. The principal intended application of these materials has been as stiff, strong sheets or skins with high delamination resistance. In these regards, 3D woven composites have been quite successful. Since the in-plane tows in 3D weaves are nominally straight, stiffness and strength in the primary load-bearing directions tend to be higher than for plain or satin weave laminates, in which topology enforces considerable tow waviness; indeed 3D woven composites are not far inferior to conventional tape laminates with comparable fibre volume fractions2 0. Delamination 9. in compression. whether for pristine material or following impact, is effectively eliminated by the through-thickness reinforcement, even though it contains a small fraction of all fibres, provided it is not unduly crimped by poor processing ?. .. The macroscopic stiffness and strength of 3D woven composites in flat panel applications can be predicted by quite simple models. Elastic constants follow easily from the assumption of uniform strain on the scale of *To whom correspondence
should be addressed

individual tows, much as in modelling tape laminates. The contribution of the through-thickness reinforcement is estimated well enough by volume-weighted averages of stiffness tensors transformed through appropriate rotations. Tensile strength can be estimated fairly well from the stress estimated in individual tows in an isostrain model, with an empirical knockdown factor applied to the measured, pristine fibre strength to obtain a representative tow strength. In the absence of delamination, compressive strength depends through the micromechanics of kink band formation on the degree of tow waviness2. Although waviness tends to be greater than in tape laminates [but much less than in two-dimensional (2D) weaves], the suppression of delamination allows the compressive strengths of 3D woven composites to compare very favourably. Beyond peak load, tests in both compression and tension have indicated remarkable strains to failure ovel 20-40mm gauge sections. Some specimens tested in compression sustained significant loads up to compressive strains of 15% (ref. 1). In tension, loads near peak load (- 1 GPa) have sometimes been sustained to strains of 4% over 13 mm gauge lengths2. Rough estimates of notch sensitivity based on such tensile tests have indicated insensitivity of strength to notches much less than 100 mm or more in size and open hole tension tests ; have indeed indicated far lower notch sensitivity than

447

Tensile failure of 30 woven composites:

B. N. Cox et al.

(a) layer-to-layer angle interlock (h-L-1)

5mm

This paper presents the results of detailed experimental inquiries into the source of the high work of fracture of 3D woven composites in tensile tests. Rough estimates are made of various contributions to the work of fracture. Frequent reference is made to stress distribution calculations presented in refs 4 and 6 and to measurements of the characteristics of tow irregularity reported in refs 2, 4 and 5.

(b) through-the-thickness angle interlock (h-T-l)

MATERIALS Tests will be reported below for layer-to-layer and through-the-thickness interlock weaves, for which representative micrographs appear in Figure 2. Nominally straight stuffer and filler tows form an orthogonal array suggestive of a coarse O/90 laminate, while warp weaver tows provide through-thickness reinforcement. Complete specifications of weave patterns are given elsewhere4>6.The layers in Figure 1 are much thicker than plies in a conventional 2D laminate, because the individual tows are -1 mm2 in cross-section. Such coarseness lowers manufacturing cost, which rises with the number of yarns to be set up on the loom. In the classification introduced in ref. 2, the composites studied here were heavily compacted having a , relatively high total fibre volume content of around 60 ~01%. In the notation of ref. 2, the layer-to-layer and through-the-thickness angle interlock composites are labelled h-L- 1 and h-T- 1. Weaver specifications for the s composites are listed in Table 1 (from ref. 2). All the composites consist of AS4 carbon fibres (Hercules Inc., Salt Lake City, UT) consolidated with Shell RSL-1895 resin and Epon Curing Agent@ W (Shell Oil Co., Anaheim, CA). Processing details appear in ref. 13. Fibre distributions The weaver specifications can be used to deduce the s fractions by volume& (a = s, for w) of all fibres that lie in stuffers, fillers and warp weavers (Table 2). All macroscopic elastic properties follow from these fractions, the measured total fibre volume fraction I (Table 2) and the measured composite thickness t (ref. 4). The crimp factor specifies the ratio of the arc length a tow to its projection on the direction in which it is of

warp weaver t x3

3mm

Figure 1 Sections normal

different ribbons.

to the filler direction of specimens weave types. Stuffers and warp weavers appear Sections of fillers appear as dark patches

with two as light

would be expected from tape laminates with similar volume fractions of fibres in similar orientations . These exceptional toughness-related properties originate not in any special property of the constituent fibres or resin, which are unremarkable, but in the geometry of the fibre arrangement. One key factor is the bundling of fibres into tows of diameter -1 mm. When a tow fails, in either compression or tension, it is immediately detached from the surrounding composite by a circumferential crack in the peripheral resin, which prevents catastrophic damage propagation. The irregularity of nominally straight tows also plays a crucial role by introducing flaws that are broadly distributed in strength and in space, encouraging delocalized failure; and by influencing load transfer around sites of tow failure, a process to be treated in some detail below. Finally, the throughthickness reinforcement holds the primary load-bearing, in plane tows together after they have failed. In compression, this prevents splitting and buckling, delaying ultimate failure until after massive, widespread kink band formation, which is accompanied by high strains2. In tension, the through-thickness reinforcement colludes with the irregularity of in-plane tows to enhance frictional load transfer around tow failure sites.
Table 1 Composite and fibre data Tow yield Composite label h-L-1 h-T-1 Stuffers, Architecture Layer-to-layer angle interlock Through-the-thickness angle interlock Y, (mmg- ) 570 570 Fillers, yf (mmg- ) 1140 1140

Linear Weavers, Y, (mmg- ) (2280, 13 600) 2280 Stuffers, e (mm s-l) 0.55 0.55

tow density Fillers

Crimp factor (warp weavers). c, 1.2 1.375

p (mm-)*
0.51 0.51

Ends per cm E number of columns of stuffers per cm in the weft direction * Picks per cm E number of columns of fillers per cm in the warp direction The first figure refers to warp weavers, the second to surface warp weavers

(see refs 4 and 6)

Tensile failure of 30 woven composites:

B. N. Cox et al.

Table 2

Composite

volume

fractions Fraction

and dimensions by volume of all fibres that he in: Warp weavers, Measured fibre volume fraction V 0.620 + 0.008 0.613 i 0.003 Composite thickness. f (mm) 5.61 5.73

Composite label /?-L-l h-T- I Measured by acid digestion

Stuffers. I; 0.587 0.571 following

Fillers,
ff

fW
0.073 0.098

0.340 0.331 ASTM Standard D3 171

nominally aligned. Crimp factors are customarily determined by measuring the lengths of yarns extracted from a representative length of woven preform. The crimp factors c, and cf for stuffers and fillers are both very close to unity. Values supplied by the weaver for the crimp factor cw for warp weavers are given in Table 1. Tocv irregularit) Unlike the ideal geometry prescribed by the weaver and widely assumed in modelling textile composites, stuffers and fillers are in reality not straight. The stuffers deflections in Figure I, for example, exhibit appreciable in the out-of-plane or through-thickness direction. The same kind of irregularity tends to be much greater for fillers, which are non-tensioned weft and freer to move and distort during weaving. Stuffers and fillers possess further irregularities beyond out-of-plane waviness. There is some in-plane misalignment, usually over wavelengths much greater than the tow spacing. Localized pinching distortions, where the cross-sectional aspect ratio of a tow varies, occur in stuffers and fillers near the turning points of warp weavers. Finally, qualitative examination of tows exposed by acid digestion of the resin reveals that some fibres follow approximately helical paths within tows, even though the textile preform was manufactured with nominally untwisted tows. Out-of-plane stuffer and filler waviness has been quantified by statistical analysis of digitized images of specimen cross-sections4. Cumulative probability distributions (CPDs) were formed for the out-of-plane misalignment angle < of small, equal intervals on tow images. Each such CPD can be fitted quite well by a symmetric normal distribution F<(E), with corresponding density function,fi(<) G dF(/d< given by

In the elastic regime, crc determines the degree of softening expected for Young modulus in the direction s of the tow axis due to out-of-plane s waviness. The fractional reduction is proportional to CJ~and is typically 5% for stuffers in the composites studied here. Beyond the elastic regime, the resin in misaligned tow segments deforms plastically in shear, allowing tows to straighten and contributing one source of non-linearity. Out-of-plane waviness is believed to be the critical form of irregularity in kink band formation in monotonic and cyclic compression2.5. It is also the only form of irregularity for which quantitative estimates have been made. However, the analysis of this paper will show that the other forms of irregularity that have been noted in stuffers (i.e. in-plane waviness, tow pinching and fibre twist) are equally important in tension. Warp weavers also exhibit considerable waviness. They are often the most severely distorted of all tows, since they are especially vulnerable to distortion during composite consolidation. Warp weaver waviness is correlated with declining delamination resistance in compression2. Insufficient data will be presented below to assess any effect of warp weaver waviness in tensile failure.

TENSILE TESTS-PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS Tensile tests of the 3D woven composites studied here as well as several variants of the same class have already been reported2. Those tests showed exceptional strains to peak load and high implied work of fracture. However, quantitative analysis was restricted by unexpected inadequacy in the method of strain measurement. Damage was so broadly distributed along the gauge section (~25mm) that, in many cases, it fell outside the 13 mm clip gauge; and important details of the mechanisms of failure and damage distribution remained undetermined. Additional tensile tests were therefore performed for several specimens. As in previous work2, the tests were (Figure 2) loaded performed on dog-bone specimens along the stuffer direction. The grips were placed a few millimetres away from the gauge section, allowing room to attach extensometer rods that measured the displacement d over the entire gauge section plus a millimetre or so at either end. This displacement was used as the

(1)
Values of the width ac of the distributions determined in ref. 4 by maximum likelihood are listed in Table 3. that were estimators

Table 3 Composite h-L-1 h-T- I

Out-of-plane

waviness

parameters

for stuffers CT< (degrees) 1.7 zto.5 1.3 zto.5

449

Tensile failure of 30 woven compositks:

B. N. Cox et al.

orientation of

0.1 m

Figure 2

Specimen

dimensions,

coordinates

and reinforcement

orientation

control variable for loading. The relative displacement of the grip mountings was also recorded for qualitative confirmation of the extensometer data. The extensometer displacement yields an estimate, E, = d/l, of the engineering strain in the gauge section, with 1the initial separation of the extensometer rods. The estimate is a lower bound to the actual strain because the shoulders of the specimen are included in the gauge length I; but analysis shows that the difference is inconsequential. Figure 3 presents typical stress-strain histories. With some variation from material to material, key characteristics are consistent. Substantial non-linearity sets in at strains between 0.5 and l%, usually in the form of continuous softening. At high loads, the smooth curve gives way to a series of jagged peaks and sharp, small load drops. The global peak load is 0.8-l .OGPa, with variation both from composite to composite and from specimen to specimen (compare more extensive data in refs 2, 9 and 10). This is approximately 70% of the value that would be expected from the strengths of pristine AS4 graphite fibres and the volume fraction of aligned fibres2. At a critical strain that varies from 2.5 to >3%, a sudden, large load drop occurs, which will be called the primary load drop*. Smaller but significant loads then persist to very large displacements, often similar to the initial gauge length. Similar long tails to the stress-strain histories would presumably have been recorded in the tests reported in ref. 2 had the tests not been terminated at the primary load drop by operator decision. The primary load drop common to all tests conveniently divides the material response into two phases. s The phase prior to the primary load drop will be called the hardening phase since the stress is generally , increasing. With the term hardening not applied too strictly, this phase will be deemed to include the small load drops often seen near peak load. The phase after the primary load drop will be called the pull-out phase .

As previously reported, stuffers generally rupture as discrete entities. The rupture of one stuffer does not generally cause failure of its neighbours at the same location. Instead, matrix cracking around the circumference of the failed tow debonds it from the surrounding composite, so that any stress concentration is minimized and neighbouring aligned tows commonly remain intact. Sliding along circumferential debond cracks typically extends several mm from the location of the rupture. By this mechanism, stuffer failures develop over a broad damage band, often spanning the entire gauge section. The long tail in the load displacement curve corresponds to pull-out of failed stuffers. The appearance of the pullout is typified by Figure 4. At strains of approximately 1% and generally well before stuffer failures, matrix cracks begin to appear between fillers, which were the orthogonal tows in the tensile tests. These cracks become widespread after loading to high strains. The layers of resin between fillers are clearly much weaker than the fillers themselves, since the fillers rarely fail internally. The interfiller cracks are analogous to the multiple cracks found in the 90 plies of O/90 laminates, except that their spacing is dictated by the filler size rather than the mechanics of stress relief. Since graphite/epoxy tows are highly anisotropic and the fillers are loaded transversely in the tensile tests, the concomitant fractional change in the composite modulus is rather slight: ~5% (see below). Interfiller cracking does not contribute significantly to the substantial non-linearity visible in Figure 3 prior to peak load. Beyond the primary load drop, a macroscopic tension crack is evident. Since stuffer failures are not generally coplanar, tension cracks remain bridged by intact stuffers. Ultimate failure eventuates when the bridging stuffers are pulled out of the fracture surfaces. MAXIMUM PHASE Strain STRAIN IN THE HARDENING

* Strains exceeding 4% were recorded before the primary ref. 2, but over the shorter gauge length of 13 mm

load drop in

to failure

data

for unidirectional

AS4/1895

450

Tensile failure of 30 woven composites:

B. N. Cox et al.

45 mm gauge

0.05

0.1 Strain
I

0.15

0.2

(b)h-T-l '

The volume fractions of the composites in this data set are similar in many cases to those found in the interior of stuffers in the heavily compacted 3D weaves. One might therefore infer that the strains to failure of the stuffers, and therefore of the 3D woven composites themselves, ought to be similar. In fact, the hardening phase in the composite, over which loads are typically ~1 GPa, survives to considerably greater strains than this: in the range 2.5S3%. The extent of non-linearity prior to peak load can be highlighted by comparing the measured stress-strain data curves with the linear projection of the initial elastic data for unidirresponse (e.g. Figure _?a).Stress-strain ectional materials follow linearity to peak load quite closely. Data for O/90 laminates show some softening due to 90 ply cracking, but only of the order of a few percent, since the 0 plies dominate stiffness. Distinct mechanisms clearly operate in the 3D woven composites.

DAMAGE PHASE

MECHANISMS

IN THE HARDENING

, 0.07

, 45 mm gauge I

0.105

0.14

Strain 1000 800 E g, z g v) 50o 400 200 t

0 I I

(c)h-T-l '

Considerable energy was applied to investigating how the strain at the primary load drop in the woven composites can be so much greater than in unidirectional composites. The answer lies partly in the effects of geometrical irregularity, especially stuffer waviness, pinching and twist; and partly in the mechanics of load redistribution around sites of stuffer failure. For loading along the stuffer direction, _K~, the response of the composite is dominated by the stuffers themselves. The fillers (which are orthogonal to the load) and the warp weavers (which follow oscillating paths mostly at large angles to sI) are relatively compliant for loads along this axis. In the elastic regime, Young s modulus in the stuffer direction, El, is fairly well approximated by E, =&E_; + (1 - f;)Ei? (2)

I!

45 mm gauge 0.035 0.07 0.105 0.14

Strain
Figure 3 Stress- strain curves for tension tests

where f, the fraction of all fibres that lie in stuffers; and is E(,UD) and E_iuD) are the axial and transverse Young s moduli for an individual tow considered as a unidirectional composite. From Table 2, ,f, z 0.58; while from ref. 4 EiuD z 140GPa and E(yD) x 8 GPa. The fraction of the total external load born; by the stuffers is f,EiuD / El z 0.96.

composites could not be found. However, considerable data have been collated by Johnston and Poe14 for AS4 fibres formed into unidirectional composites with different thermoset and thermoplastic matrices, many very similar in room temperature properties to 1895. The failure strains are distributed around a median of approximately 1.5%; all fall below the strain to failure of bare fibres, 1.65%, quoted by the fibre manufacturer. The composite failure strains are slightly lower because the matrix concentrates stress around the first fibres to fail.

Plastic tow2straightening
All of the stress-strain curves show significant nonlinearity setting in when the applied load ga z 500 MPa, corresponding to strain co z 0.6%. It is very unlikely that any stuffers have ruptured at so low a strain. Interfiller cracks begin at this strain level, but they can lower Young modulus only by about 4%, since they do s not affect the modulus of stuffers. Between strains of 0.6 and 1% (at which strain stuffers have not yet begun to

451

Tensile failure of 30 woven composites:

B. N. Cox et al.

pulled out stuffers

Figure 4

Half of a specimen

after failure,

showing

evidence

of extensive

tow pull-out

fail), the data of Figure 3 show much larger declines in the tangent modulus. This softening is believed to arise from plastic straightening of the stuffers, i.e. the reduction under load of the degree of their random waviness. If the straightening were an elastic process, Young modulus s should rise with strain, since a one-dimensional composite is stiffer when it is better aligned. However, if the straightening is plastic, then initially misaligned tow segments can elongate at approximately constant local axial loads. The composite will appear macroscopically to soften. The critical applied load for the onset of plastic straightening can be estimated from other data. The initial misalignment angle E of stuffer segments is approximately normally distributed [equation (l)] with <I < 1 >z 2 and the 90th percentile of I<] lying near 5 (ref. 4). The axial shear stress in any stuffer segment is given approximately by*
17131 = 01

contribution of out-of-plane tow waviness to c, can be estimated from the measured distribution of the continuously varying out-of-plane misalignment angle, E. For the normal distribution of equation (1)

(44
(small a() (4b)

Ill = AEl/f

(3)

where x3 is the thryygh-thickness direction, a, is the applied stress and c, is the axial stress in any stuffer. The critical shear stress rC for shear flow inside a tow t was independently measured in studies of kink band formation during compression2. Its value is approximately 75MPa. Thus from equation (3) tow segments whose misalignment ranges from 2 to 5 should straighten plastically for applied stresses ranging from 500 to 1250MPa. This is indeed the range over which softening is seen. The lower end of this range is also equal in magnitude to the compressive strength*, which is determined by the occurrence of the first few kink bands. Kink bands are mediated by the same shear flow within tows.
Transition to stuzer rupture

Using the measured values of a< of Table 3, this yields values of c, near 1.OOl. Thus the maximum contribution to composite strain from plastic straightening of out-ofplane waviness is -O.l%, which is a small part of the difference between the failure strain of the carbon fibres (1.5%) and the end of the hardening phase (2.5-3%). In-plane waviness, pinching and fibre twist can also contribute to the maximum strain attained in straightening. Unfortunately, these irregularities are not easy to quantify-they were left undetermined in ref. 4. Nevertheless, they can be inferred indirectly from measurements of Young modulus. Assume that unmeasured s distortions may continue to be described by a normal distribution of a generalized misalignment angle I, but now with an enhanced value of the variance 0:. According to the orientation averaging model of ref. 3 (which concurs with the binary model of ref. 4; see Figure 3 of ref. 6) Young modulus should be reduced by s waviness by the factor
?j

(1 +c$r>-

The axial strain required to eliminate waviness from a stuffer is just c, - 1, where c, is the crimp factor. The *Since stuffer waviness is primarily out-of-plane, the axial shear stress component rr3 has the largest magnitude. t Shear flow in these composites is mediated by arrays of ogive microcracks in the resin between pairs of fibres. See ref. 2 for details.

where I is an orthotropy factor of value ~40 for graphite/epoxy. Thus gz can be deduced from the ratio of the measured Young modulus to that predicted by s the orientation averaging model3 for a geometrically ideal composite. Thence ensues a new estimate of the crimp factor c, via equation (4b). The results of this procedure are shown in Table 4. The inferred values of ut are generally somewhat larger than those attributed to out-of-plane stuffer waviness alone (compare Tables 4 and 3). Since c, CC the implied increase in c, is greater; a;, and the strains implied from tow straightening might be as high as 0.2%. When this strain is added to the strain to failure for an

452

Tensile failure of 30 woven composites:

B. N. Cox et al.

Table 4 predicted

Estimating the crimp Young moduli s E, (<iPa) expt OA* 91.5 88.6

factor

for stuffers

from measured

and

<
YexptjOA) 0.93 0.89 gdiansjdegrees) 0.044/2.5 0.055/3.2 cf 1.0010 1.0015

/I-L-l h-T-1

85 79

Measured in the stuffer direction Predicted by the orientation averaging (straight stuffers) Deduced from via equation (5) 1 From via equation (4b) T:

model

for ideal

geometry

initially straight tow, an estimate of the composite strain at which stuffers should fail results. Using unidirectional composite data as a guide to the failure strain of a straight tow, say 1.5-1.6%, stuffers should fail at composite strains less than 1.8%. Of course, the estimates of strains arising from tow straightening were based on the assumption that all tows are wavy to the same degree. In fact, there is considerable variance in the degree of waviness from composite to composite, from specimen to specimen, and from tow to tow within the same specimen. Furthermore, damage during weaving is likely to reduce the strength and therefore the failure strain of at least some tows in a typical specimen gauge section. The knockdown in strength might be as much as 30% for some tows (see further remarks below). Overall it is realistic to expect that stuffers might fail at applied strains ranging from as little as 1% to approximately 2%.

Direct observations of tow rupture Ruptured stuffers are easily discovered in photographs taken of the machined sides of specimens under load. Interior stuffers, on the other hand, are entirely concealed, since the top and bottom layers of in-plane tows are fillers. Thus, most stuffer rupture events are not readily detected during a test. Photographic evidence from machined surfaces was therefore supplemented by destructive inspection of specimens that had been loaded to various applied strains. In the destructive inspection, the specimen grip sections were masked with tape and the resin removed with acid from the gauge section. Stuffers were then examined by probing with tweezers. (This is not an easy task. When the resin is removed, the fillers tend to burst open into fluff balls, since their ends are not anchored.) One specimen was inspected in this way after loading to 2.3% applied strain, at which point the load was still very near the peak load (M 1 GPa). Photographs taken of one machined side before matrix dissolution clearly showed at least three rupture sites on each stuffer. However, these stuffers had been greatly thinned during the machining of the specimen, which probably lowered their strengths. They were therefore considered unrepresentative. On the other machined surface, where the stuffers were nearly whole, just one stuffer showed an

obvious rupture. Only when the other tows were pulled with tweezers following matrix dissolution were all but one found also to be ruptured a little beyond the gauge section. The specimen was then pulled apart further to investigate interior stuffers. working from the two original panel surfaces. In the two layers of stuffers so exposed, two tows contained immediately obvious ruptures, while several others were found to be ruptured by pulling. Because the resin in the deep interior of the specimen was improperly dissolved and removal of the outer tows caused considerable disorder, testing all interior tows for rupture was impracticable. Nor could it be determined without doubt whether further rupture events were embedded in undissolved resin in the grip regions. In specimens tested to ultimate failure, stuffer pull-out lengths occasionally indicate rupture well outside the gauge section. In summary, of 10 interior tows accessible to testing, seven were indeed proven to he ruptured. The others may have been ruptured beyond the zone from which the matrix had been removed. All tows showed at most one break. apart from the severely thinned tows on the one machined surface. The same destructive procedure showed that all stuffers were essentially intact in a specimen that had been loaded to only 1.6% strain. Many fibre breaks were found within individual stuffers; indeed, approximately half of all fibres within one tow examined in detail were broken at least once somewhere in the gauge section. However, the locations of breaks on different fibres were not correlated and the breaks could not be mistaken for a tow rupture event. Furthermore, the breaks were too sparse to have any significant effect on tow modulus. This specimen may well represent the condition of tows in the composites as fabricated. Thus the results of destructive examinations are consistent with the estimates given above of the range The of strains over which stuffers should rupture. conclusion that moSt and probabl?, all stldflers have ruptured Lvellbefore the primary, load drop is inescapuble. The stress-strain data of Figure 3 indeed exhibit small, sharp load drops in the hardening phase once the strain exceeds a threshold that varies from I to 296. These are believed to correspond to tow rupture events. Their commencement signals the attainment or nearattainment of peak load.

FRICTION

EFFECTS

AND

LOCKUP

In most cases, the load remains very near its peak value until the primary load drop occurs at strains of 2.5-3%, in spite of the widespread rupture of stuffers. This indicates very effective load transfer around sites of stuffer failure. The crucial phenomenon is believed to be a lockup mechanism involving tow waviness. Waviness and pinching features are found damaged but not straightened on pulled-out tows following tensile failure, implying that they have been dragged through the

453

Tensile failure of 30 woven composites:

6. N. Cox et al.

site of tow rupture Figure 5 Cell model approximation of frictional load transfer in the shear lag

Beyond the primary load drop, the stress falls monotonically and approximately linearly with displacement (Figure 3). This is consistent with load transfer by uniform friction among stuffers whose contact length is decreasing in proportion to the separation of the two halves of a ruptured specimen. The friction stress 7, which acts along the debonded length Is of a broken stuffer (Figure 5), can be related to the applied load ga by the shear lag approximation:

composite during pull-out in their distorted condition. Lockup is conjectured to occur during the pull-out process via the interaction of waviness and pinching features on adjacent tows. The contact forces in 3D woven composites can be especially high because the warp weavers prevent contacting in-plane tows from separating to facilitate sliding.

Lyyy
I I I I

I 1

,a
,/

Fillers next to stuffer

-2

Distance along stuffer (mm)

(b)

Stuffer A*

where s and A are the circumference and cross-sectional area of a stuffer. With s = 5.4 mm, A M 1.5 mm* (from ref. 6), f, z 0.58 (Table 2), an average pull-out length M 5 mm, and ca = 50- 100 MPa (Figure 3), equation t6) yields T = 5-10MPa. Load transfer around failed stuffers in the hardening phase might also be described as a frictional process, since stuffers are always debonded from the surrounding composite at the moment of their rupture. Evidence of typical debonding is shown in Figure 6, which presents differential displacements around a failed stuffer on a machined specimen surface. The relative displacements were measured by stereoscbpic comparison of photo6 graphs taken prior to loading and at applied strains of 1.3 or 2.6%. Slip zones extend on either side of the rupture site, manifest as unequal displacements of the stuffer and adjacent fillers. The slip clearly occurs in the resin layer between the stuffers and fillers. Beyond the slip zones, the stuffers and neighbouring fillers displace together. To maintain microscopic loads near the peak load in the hardening phase, the frictional stresses acting along the slip zones must be very large. The peak load is typically 800 MPa-1 GPa. Taking I, = l-5 mm as representative slip lengths (e.g. Figure 6), equation (6) yields 7 M 100-500 MPa. This range is one to two orders of magnitude greater than during the pull-out phase. The friction process must be controlled by different mechanisms. The critical mechanism in the hardening phase is conjectured to be lockup: friction greatly enhanced by through-thickness compression and the contact of tow irregularities. Warp weavers play a primary role in the mechanics of lockup. Under axial tension in the stuffer direction, warp weavers develop through-thickness compression. This aids lockup by increasing the contact forces between asperities. Indeed, the rupture of warp weavers has not been observed, even after matrix dissolution, in any specimen prior to the primary load drop; while none or very few warp weavers survive across the tension crack in the pull-out phase. It is plausible that the primary load
drop occurs exactly when warp weavers fail and permit already ruptured stuffers to spring apart and move relatively freely past one another.

01 -4

-2

Distance along stuffer (mm) Figure 6 Displacements at applied strains of (a) I .3% and (b) 2.3% relative to the unloaded condition near a ruptured stuffer in the direction of the applied load. Displacements are shown for the stuffer itself and the adjacent fillers

Some direct evidence of the role of tow irregularity in the friction mechanism in the hardening phase is offered by through-thickness strains observed at various stages

454

Tensile failure of 30 woven composites:

B. N. Cox et al.

of loading. Like the sliding displacements reported above, these strains were measured on the machined sides of specimens by stereoscopy. The following observations were recorded from one typical specimen. At 1.3% total strain, there is universal contraction in the through-thickness direction consistent with Poisson effect for the applied load level. At this strain in s this specimen, tow rupture appears not to have begun. Plasticity arises mainly from tow straightening. At in contrast, the specimen has 2.3% total strain, exppanded in the through-thickness direction. Poisson contractions are still visible across one or two tows, but in most places the total thickness of the specimen is larger than it was at zero load. The swelling is apparently a manifestation of irregular stuffers pushing one another apart as shape features are pulled out of registry by sliding.

As previously conjectured , factors contributing to strength loss include damage to fibres during the weaving process; reduction of strength where stuffers are severely distorted in the composite; and the uneven distribution of loads due to random stuffer waviness. The first two of these are difficult to estimate apriori. The third, however, is amenable to modelling: this was one subject of the binary model calculations of ref. 6. Intuitively, one sees that if one tow segment is relatively straight compared with its neighbours, then it is also relatively stiff and bears a disproportionate share of the external load. Following ref. 6, the critical external load for tow failure and thus composite strength falls as 0: where g: is the . second moment of the distribution of misalignment

(a)

1200

/ I /

l t, h-L-1

FLAWS

AND

STRENGTH

The greatest unnotched strength that could ever be achieved in the composite would be that for ideally straight. undamaged stuffers. Ignoring the contributions of fillers and warp weavers. one has by the rule of mixtures CJuZ,f: q V?Ef f
(7)

where ,f, V is the volume fraction of t;e) composite constituted by the fibres in stuffers alone; efC 1s the fibre failure strain; and Ef is the fibre modulus. For a failure strain of 1.5% for AS4 fibres in stuffers (the median of the data of Figure 4), .f, V = 0.35 (an average for all the heavily compacted composites in Table 2) and Ef = 235 GPa (ref. 4), equation (7) gives oU z 1.2 GPa. The measured peak loads (Figure 3 and refs 2, 9) are lower than this by 20&40%.

00
(W

10

Crack Opening Displacement, 2u (mm) h-T-1

0.5

2.5 3 1.5 2 1 Crack Opening Displacement, 2u (mm)

J 3,

traction free

band of tow straightening, rupture, lockup,

concentrator t-a------,

ot-L.- 1 0
failure near a stress

Crack Opening Displacement, 2u (mm)

the bridging traction,

-2

Figure 7 Conjectured appearance of tow concentrator as a propagating band of damage

Figure 8 The measured relation between the displacement discontinuity. 2u

p, and

455

Tensile failure of 30

woven composites:

B. N. Cox et al.

angles [equation (2)]. For the largest values of a( inferred by comparing measured and predicted Young moduli s (Table 4), the strength reduction due to unequal load distributions is -10%. This is about a quarter to a half of the reduction in measured peak stress from the value implied by fibre volume fractions and the strength of pristine AS4 fibres. Warp weavers, which follow approximately sawtooth paths, fail at significantly higher applied strains than the stuffers, which are nominally straight. However, since the warp weavers contain 5-10 times fewer fibres than the stuffers (Table 2), they contribute only a few percent to Young modulus and ultimate strength in the stuffer s direction. They are also therefore unlikely to contribute significantly in a direct way to the non-linearity prior to peak load. During the hardening phase, the load is borne predominantly by the stuffers. The indirect effects of warp weavers, on the other hand, are profound. Their presence is the primary reason why stuffers are distorted during weaving. Without the geometrical distortion of stuffers, neither plastic tow straightening nor lockup would exist.

2u is related to the displacement d measured over the gauge length 1 by

2u=d+ c

where E, is the composite modulus and the second term represents the displacement that would have been measured in the absence of any non-linearity. Bridging traction laws p(u) deduced in this way from the data of Figure 3 are shown in Figure 8. The work of fracture, W,, is related to p(u) by 8 71
W, = 2

I( J

p(u)du

(9)

where u, is the critical opening displacement at which p vanishes. This is just the area under the curves of Figure 8. Values for W, for each of the cases in Figure 8 are listed in
Table 5.

BRIDGING TRACTIONS FRACTURE

AND THE WORK OF

In a large specimen containing a stress concentrator such as a hole, tow rupture would be expected to develop as a band of damage that could be described macroscopically as a crack (Figure 7). The non-linear process of tow straightening, rupture, lockup and pull-out would form a cohesive zone behind the crack tip, defined here as the point of furthest advance of damage. At sufficiently large crack lengths, traction-free fracture surfaces will develop in the far crack wake (Figure 7). The fracture mechanics of such a crack are determined by the relation between the tractions p across the cohesive zone and the displacement discontinuity or crack opening displacement 2u that it introduces into the body. It will be seen below that the cohesive zone in 3D woven composites is very long (see also ref. 2); at least an order of magnitude greater than the specimen width in the tensile tests. Consistently, damage is essentially uniform in the tensile tests, apart from statistical fluctuations deriving from random tow waviness. Therefore the tensile test yields a direct measurement of the relation p(u). The bridging tractions p can be identified with the applied load era. The displacement discontinuity

The work of fracture of the 3D woven composites is very large-about one order of magnitude greater than that of unidirectional or cross-plied graphite/epoxy laminates. Indeed, the values of Table 5 appear to exceed those for any other class of materials. Table 5 also shows a breakdown of W, into contributions Wi from the hardening phase and WY) from the pull-out phase: W i 1sby far the larger. The contributions ) to Wi from plastic tow straightening and from tow rupture and lockup can also be crudely separated. Assume that tow straightening finishes and tow rupture begins when the applied strain is 2%. Over the gauge length d, the corresponding value 2u, of 2u is given by 2u, + $d
c = 0.02 (10)

The contribution of tow straightening to Wi is given roughly by the value of the integral in equation (9) when u, = a,, with the remainder of Wi being the contribution from tow rupture and lockup. The contribution from tow rupture (work done within a single tow) can be estimated as f, W yD), wheref, is the area fraction of the stuffers and Wf(uD) is the work of fracture of a unidirectional carbon epoxy composite. From Table 2, f, M 0.6; while WyDi separate contributions t~ll?J~eti~~~~ i~kaEJ.?E contribution from lockup, if,. the effects of sliding and friction enhanced by asperity contact prior to the primary load drop, is generally the greatest but also the most variable.

Table 5

Contributions

to the work of fracture Hardening phase Plastic tow straightening -70 -70 -70 Tow rupture -60 -60 -60 Pull-out phase PIllaX Lockup -700 -220 -330 W (2) (kJ me2) f 310 45 40
WW

Composite label h-L-1 h-T-1 h-T- 1

Work of fracture Wr (kJ m*) 1140 395 500

Cohesive zone length,

Ich crnrn)

IV( (kJmm2) f) 830 350 460

1000 900 900

100 40 50

456

Tensile failure of 30 woven composites:

B. N. Cox et al.

TOW WAVINESS PHASE

EFFECTS

IN THE PULL-OUT

Further corroboration of the concept of lockup (or friction greatly enhanced by tow irregularity) is found from data in the pull-out phase. Close inspection of Figure da reveals that the slope of da,/du possesses a succession of extrema in the pull-out phase at values of crack opening displacement 2tr separated by approximately 2 mm. This implies a roughly periodic variation of the friction stress, which could be an effect of tow waviness. Indeed, stuffer distortions are often commensurate with the separation of fillers, which might be expected as a result of the weaving process. The filler separation is approximately 2 mm for the architecture h-L-1 of Figure 8u6.

0.6

Pmax

0.2

0.4 a,/w

0.6

0.6

NOTCH

SENSITIVITY

Notch sensitivity when damage propagates in a band defined by the constitutive law p(u) is most generally expressed in terms of the characteristic length &,, of the non-linear cohesive zoneZopZ4. To order of magnitude
kh

Figure 9 Curves: calculated ratio of notched to unnotched strength for a circular hole in a plate (from ref. 26). Circles: data from ref. 9. Squares: expected strength knockdown for the specimen dimensions used in ref. 9 and a hypothetical material with &,, = 3 mm. [The cur\es were actually calculated for a linear hardening law, p(u): but according to the theme of ref. 25, they should depend only weakly on the shape of P(U)1

-7

EcWf
Prnax

(11)
11 the specimen half-width. is Thus, the effect of the relation p(u) is almost entirely represented through prnclx and the length scale kh. In principle, the shape of p(zr) also influences 0,/p,,,, but this dependence is sufficiently weak to be ignored in making rough estimates. Curves computed for a,/p,,, are reproduced in Figure 9 from ref. 25. Data from ref. 9 for the composites h-L-1 and h-T-1 are entered on Figure 9 as symbols with error bars, with the ratio of the measured notched and unnotched strengths plotted as the ordinate. Each datum implies a value of /,h, since each datum must lie on one of the family of curves (rr,/p,,, reyszls (J,/I~,) obtained for different values of a,//&. For /-L-l, two points lie near a,//,,, = 0, implying /& * XC; while the third leads to I&, z 40 mm. For h-T-1. the three data imply /& z 30 50mm. While the data of ref. 9 are sparse and therefore the estimates of&h very rough, to order of magnitude they are consistent with the values of Trxhle5. For conventional tape laminates /& % 3 mm (at most), leading to the predicted ratios of notched to unnotched strength marked in Figure 9 by open squares. The measurements of ref. 9 clearly show far less notch sensitivity. COMPARISON COMPOSITES WITH STRONG FIBRE

the maximum value of p(u), i.e. the unnotched material strength. If any smooth stress concentrator is much larger than &,, then the strength CT, of the part will be reduced from prnax by the stress concentration factor computed for an elastic body, e.g. l/3 for a circular hole. If the length a, of a sharp notch is much greater than &,, then

is whereprnax

(12)
i.e. strength falls indefinitely as a, I On the other hand, *. if any stress concentrator or sharp notch is much smaller than &h, then the strength loss is minimal; the reduction of CT,from pmax is not far from that implied by net section considerations. Thus &h characterizes the transition from notch sensitivity to notch insensitivity. Values of &.h deduced from the laws p(u) of Figure 8 are also listed in Table 5. Commensurate with their high work of fracture, 3D woven composites are exceptionally notch insensitive, with Ich = 40- 100 mm. Values off,, for unidirectional or cross-plied graphite/epoxy composites or for tough alloys are typically just a few mm. Very rough COnfirmatiOn of estimates of /& can be inferred from data in ref. 9 for the dependence of notched strength on hole size in open hole tension tests. If damage is confined to a band characterized by the traction relation p(u), then the proportional strength reduction due to the hole is approximatelyZ5

where oc is the notched strength, pmax [the maximum of p(u)] is the unnotched strength, a, is the hole radius, and

Composites of aligned strong fibres in relatively weak matrices exhibit tensile test curves similar in many ways to those of Figure 3 (e.g. ref. 27). Consider, for example, common ceramic matrix composites (CMCs) such as Sic or A 120, monofilaments in an Sic or glass matrix. Nonlinearity is caused initially by multiple matrix cracks. loosely analogous to the interfiller cracks seen as early damage in the 3D woven composites. As long as the

457

Tensile failure of 30 woven composites:

B. IV. Cox et al

fibre-matrix interfaces are weak, the fibres remain intact as the matrix cracks multiply to saturation. Peak load is associated with catastrophic fibre failure and is followed very closely by a large load drop. In analogy to the pullout phase in Figure 3, relatively small loads are then required to pull broken fibres out of the two separating halves of the specimen against friction. Fibre breaks in CMCs are governed by the statistics of flaws, which are approximately described by a Weibull distribution. Prior to the main load drop, many hbre breaks may therefore occur along each fibre, with more found for lower Weibull moduli. The main load drop occurs when fibre breaks form a catastrophic band across the specimen. One might then infer that tow ruptures prior to the primary load drop in 3D woven composites are due analogously to nothing more than a broad distribution of flaw strengths in stuffers. However, this is not an accurate depiction. In a CMC, fibre breaks that precede the primary load drop may but do not usually form part of the catastrophic failure surface. The failure surface is defined by those fibre breaks occurring at the time of formation of the catastrophic damage band. In the 3D woven composites, there is almost always only one site of rupture in each stuffer following ultimate failure*. Destructive sectioning reveals that all or nearly all of these ruptures occur at strains not much over 2%; and therefore the locus of the eventual fracture surface has been set well before the primary load drop. The load drop and the high strains preceding it reflect fundamentally different phenomena to those in strong fibre composites. CONCLUSIONS

4 5

11

12 13

14 15 I6

I7

Three-dimensional woven composites show exceptionally high work of fracture because they sustain near-peak loads at strains considerably above those at which the primary load-bearing tows have failed. Loads are evidently transferred around sites of tow rupture by friction that is greatly enhanced by the waviness of nominally straight, load-bearing tows and the clamping effect of through-thickness tows. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Tensile tests were carried out under NASA Langley Contract NASl-19243, contract monitor C. C. Poe. Experimental analysis of mechanisms and most modelling were carried out under Rockwell Independent Research and Development Funding. REFERENCES
1 Cox, B.N., Dadkhah, M.S., Inman, R.V., Morris, W.L. and Zupon, J., Mechanisms of compressive failure in 3D composites. Acta Metall. Mater. 1992, 40, 3285

1
19

2o
21

22

23
24

25
26

27

Cox, B.N., Dadkhah, M.S., Morris, W.L. and Flintoff, J.G.. Failure mechanisms of 3D woven composites in tension, compression, and bending. Acta Metall. Mater. 1994, 42, 3961 Cox, B.N., Carter, W.C. and Fleck, N.A. A binary model of textile composites. I Formulation. Actu Metal/. Mater. 1994, 42, 3463 Cox, B.N. and Dadkhah, M.S., The macroscopicelasticity of 3D woven composites. J. Compos. Mater. 1995, 29, 785 Dadkhah, M.S., Morris, W.L. and Cox, B.N., Compression compression fatigue of 3D woven composites. Acta Metal/. Mater. 1995, 43, 4235 Xu, J., Cox, B.N., McGlockton, M.A. and Carter, W.C., A binary model of textile composites. II The elastic regime. Acta Metall. Mater. in press Guess, T. R., and Reedy Jr, E.D., Comparison of interlocked fabric and laminated fabric Kevlar 49/epoxy composites. J. Compos. Technol. Res. 1985, I, 136 Reedy Jr, E.D. and Guess, T.R., Additional comparisons of interlocked fabric and laminated fabric Kevlar 49/epoxy composites. J. Compos. Technol. Res. 1986, 8, I63 Minguet, P., Fedro, M. and Gunther, C.K., Test methods for NASA Contractor Report 4609, Boeing textile composites. Defense and Space Group, PA, 1994 Pochiraju, K., Byun, J.-H. and Chou, T.-W., Process/structure/ property relationships for 3D textile structural composites. Report to Lockheed Aero Sys. Co. under NASA Langley Contract NASI-1888, Univ. of Delaware, 1994 Cox, B.N., Fundamental concepts in the suppression of delamination buckling by stitching. In Ninth DOD/NASA/ FAA Conf. on Fibrous Composites in Structural Design Lake , Tahoe, NV, November 1991 (Eds J.R. Soderquist, L.M. Neri and H.L. Bohon), FAA Tech. Ctr, Atlantic City, NJ, 1992, pp. 110551110 Cox, B.N., Delamination and buckling in 3D composites. J. Compos. Mater. 1994, 28, 1114 Falcone, A., Dursch, H., Nelson, K. and Avery, W., Resin transfer molding of textile composites. NASA Contractor Report CR 191505, July 1993 Johnston, N. and Poe, C.C., private communication, NASA Langley Research Center Data Sheets, Hercules Inc., Salt Lake City, UT Williams, D.R., Davidson, D.L. and Lankford, J., Fatiguecrack-tip plastic strains by the stereoimaging technique. Exp. Mech. 1980,20, 134 Budiansky, B., Hutchinson, J.W. and Evans, A.G., Matrix fracture in fiber-reinforced ceramics. J. Mech. Phvs. Solids 1986,34, 167 Rose, L.R.F., Crack reinforcement by distributed springs. J. Mech. Phys. Solids 1987, 34, 383 Ashby, M.F., Materials Selection in Mechanical Design Per, gamon, Oxford, 1992 Chart 6 Cottrell, A.H., Mechanics of fracture. Tewksbury Symposium on Fracture University of Melbourne, , 1963, pp. l-27 Rice, J.R., The mechanics of earthquake rupture. In Physics of the Earth Interior, Proceedings of the International School of s Physics, Enrico Fermi (Eds A.M. Dziewonski and E. Boschi), North Holland, Amsterdam, 1980, pp. 555-649 Hillerborg, A., Analysis of one single crack. In Fracture Mechanics of Concrete (Ed. F.H. Wittmann), Elsevier Science, Amsterdam, 1983, pp. 2333249 Bao, G. and Suo, Z., Remarks on crack bridging concepts. Appl. Mech. Rev. 1992.45. 355 Cox, B.N. and Marshall, D.B., Concepts for bridged cracks in fracture and fatigue. Acta Metall. Mater. 1994, 42, 341 Dugdale, D.S., Yielding of steel sheets containing slits. J. Mech. Phys. Solids 1960, 8, 100 Suo, Z., Ho, S. and Gong, X., Notch ductile-to-brittle transition due to localized inelastic band. J. Eng. Muter. Technol. 1993, 115,319 Cao, H.C., Bischoff, E., Sbaizero, O., Rtihle, M., Evans, A.G., Marshall, D.B. and Brennan, J.J., Effect of interfaces on the properties of fiber-reinforced ceramics. J. Am. Ceram. Sot. 1990,73, 1691

*The multiple ruptures on heavily thinned stuffers reported machined specimen surface are considered insignificant

on one

458