Composite materials

The unique properties of composite materials such as high strength to weight ratio, high
creep resistance, high tensile strength at elevated temperature, and high toughness have
garnered higher interest in numerous automotive, aerospace, and sports applications. For
instance, 50% of the new Boeing 787 Dreamliner is made from carbon fiber composites
[1]. Many of aircraft components are manufactured in such a way that the parts can be
disassembled for shipping, inspection, repair, and/or replacement. Normally different
fasteners would be used to join the different components. However, notches in
composites will create stress concentrations that often dictate the design allowables of the
entire structure. The mechanical properties of laminates with a notch are dependent upon
the notch size, laminate size and thickness, and ply size, thickness and orientation. All of
these factors affect damage initiation to the laminate, ply interaction within the laminate
and extent of damage growth.
Unlike metallic joints, which are a well-understood process, composite joints exhibit
complicated failure modes. A typical composite fails in a sequence of transverse Microcracking, delamination, fiber failure, and finally composite failure.
Micro-cracking starts the first ply failure, followed by delamination which propagates the
crack into neighboring ply. Delamination is defined as the separation between any two
laminas. It is known to happen due to the excessive interlaminar normal and shear stress
at the ply discontinuities (i.e. laminate boundaries or around holes). As the applied load
exceeds the ultimate tensile strength of the fiber, individual fibers will start to fail, which
eventually leads to the catastrophic failure of the composite material.
Hole size effect is one of the most widely researched area in terms of notches in
laminates, whereby for a constant stress concentration across the width of a specimen
increasing the whole diameter decreases the strength of the laminate. Whitney and
Nuismer [2] developed the widely used average and point stress criteria; where by the
laminate failure occurs when the stress across a region next to, or at a point some distance
from, the notch reaches the unnotched material strength. Eriksson and Aronsson [3]

developed the damage zone criteria, which stated a homogeneous damage area starts
from a hole, and grows perpendicular to the direction of the loading.
Harris, and Morris [4] investigated the effect of laminate thickness by increasing the
number of plies and by keeping a constant ply thickness. Their study revealed that for
quasi-isotropic laminate the strength decreased with increasing thickness. The result was
due to the fact that thicker laminates have less stress distribution within the laminate.
Harris and Morris also observed discrete jumps on crack opening displacement curve,
which corresponded to gauge section delamination. In addition, Rodini and Eisenmann
[6] used a probabilistic argument that laminate with thinner plies are less likely to fail at
lower stress than thicker plies, due to the fact that thicker plies contain statistically more
defects.

Legace [7] studied the effects of hole diameter for [0/90 2]s laminate. He found that for
increasing hole diameter, the fracture changed from a matrix dominated to a fiber
dominated. This was due to interlaminar stress in the region around the hole boundary
becoming less significant with increasing hole radius to laminate thickness ratio.
Chang et al. [8] discovered that for quasi-isotropic [0/45/-45/90] 2s laminates, damage
initiated around the circular hole, and propagated via matrix failure in the off-axis plies.
When the damage reaches the 00 plies, the fiber starts to break causing the laminate to
failure.
In this paper, finite element analysis will be used to study the impact of through-hole
locations within a laminate. In doing so, a carbon reinforced polymer matrix (CFRP)
laminate with [0/90/90/0] stacking sequence and two circular holes will be subjected to
uniaxial force. The two holes will be placed closer to each other and systematically
moved apart on the x-axis. To confirm the accuracy of the ANSYS model the following
six cases were modeled first and results were compared to theoretical values.
i) 2D - Isotropic plate
ii) 2D - Orthotropic Plate
iii) 2D - Isotropic Plate with a hole in the Middle

iv) 2D - Orthotropic Plate with a hole in the Middle

v) 3D - Orthotropic Plate with a hole in the Middle
vi) ANSYS verification case (Solid 46) for simply supported laminate plate under
pressure (VM82)
Upon successful numerical modeling, a 3D orthotropic laminate with four layers and two
holes will be modeled to study the stress distribution within the laminate as the circular
holes are moved further apart on the x-axis.
3. Theoretical Analysis
3.1 Isotropic Plate
An Isotropic body has material properties that are the same in every direction. The
material properties are a function of orientation at any given point in the body.
For a thin isotropic lamina in plane stress i.e., yy zz xy yz 0 the strain-stress
relations in the elastic range are [19]:
xx

1
xx yy
E11

yy

1
xx yy
E11

[15]

xy

1
xy
G

[16]

[14]

In our case, since the applied force is in the unidirectional x-axis, Eq. [14], and [15]
reduce to:
xx

xx
E11

Where:
xx Stress in the x-direction
E11 Youngs Modulus in the x-direction

11 Strain in the x-direction

The stress is determined by:

[17]

P
A

[18]

Where:
P = Load Applied
A = Area
3.2 Isotropic Plate with a hole in the middle
The presence of a notch in a stressed member creates a highly localized stresses at the
root of the notch. The ratio of the maximum stress at the notch root to the nominal stress
is called the stress concentration factor. The stress concentration factor is also defined as
[18]:
S

max
no min al

[19]

The stress concentration factor can be determined analytically by applying elasticity

theory. For a large thin plate with a small circular hole at the center that is subjected to
uniaxial far-field tension

acting along the x-axis, the stresses around the vicinity of the

hole are given in polar coordinates r , by:

rr

a2
a2
1 2 1 2
2
2
r
r

a2
3a 4
1 2 1 4 cos 2
2
2
r
r

3a 2
cos 2
r 2

a2
3a 2
1 2 1 2 sin 2
2
2
r
r

Where:

= Angle measured counter clockwise from x-axis

a = Radius

[20]

[21]

[22]

The maximum stress is found where 3 xx and it occurs when r = a, = + / 2 ,

hence the stress concentration factor is S = 3 (i.e. refer to Appendix 3A).

The nominal stress for a plate of thickness (t), width (W), with a hole of radius (a)
subjected to a Force (F) can be computed by:
no min al

F
t * W 2 * a

[23]

When the hole is small such that (2a << W), then the denominator reduces to (t*W) and
Eq. [23] can be written as:
no min al

[24]

t *W

3.3 Orthotropic Plate

An orthotropic plate has mechanical properties that are different in different directions.
For a thin orthotropic plane in plane stress zz xy yz 0 the strain-stress relations in
the elastic range are [19]:
xx

yy
xx
yx
m x xy
E xx
E yy

yy xy

xx yy

m y xy
E xx E yy

xy m x xx m y yy

xy
G xy

[25]

[26]

[27]

For a 2D orthotropic lamina subjected to uniaxial force in the x-direction the above
equations reduce to:
xx

xx
E xx

[28]

 xx
E xx

[29]

xy m x xx

[30]

yy xy

Where m x is the coefficient of mutual influence and is determined by:

12
1 212
1
1
1
1

(cos 2 )

E
E
2
G
E
E
E
G
22
12
11
11
22
12
11

m xx (sin 2 )

[31]

For 00 and 900 m x is zero and Eq. [28] can be written as:
xy

xy

[32]

G12

3.4 Orthotropic Plate with a Hole in the Middle

Tan [13,14] derived a closed form solution for a stress concentration factor (SCF) of
infinite orthotropic plate containing a central circular opening and under uniaxial loading.
The SCF for an infinite orthotropic plate can be written as:

K T,,o1, p ,u 1 2

Ey
Ex

yx

E y
2G yx

[33]

4. Material Properties
4.1. Material
The material selected for this paper is HTA carbon fiber and RTM 6 Epoxy resin with a
fiber volume fraction of 63%. For simplification reasons the fiber volume fraction of the
individual layer of the laminate is considered to be constant. The material is modeled to
exhibit both Isotropic and Orthotropic properties.
4.2 Material Properties
Properties for HTA carbon fiber and RTM 6 Epoxy resin was obtained from published
literature [15]. A micro-mechanic approach [16] is used to determine Youngs moduli E 1,
E2, E3, shear moduli G12, G13, G23 and Poissons ratio 12 , 13 and 23 .

Table 1: Mechanical Properties of HTA carbon fiber and RTM 6 Epoxy resin

In the micro-mechanic models transversely isotropic and isotropic material behavior

together with constrained transverse strains were assumed for the carbon fiber and
polymer matrix components [19]:

E11 E F * V F (1 V F ) * E M

[34]

EM

2
1 M
EM
(1 VF ) * E F
1 M2
E F

E 22 E33

VF

[35]

12 13 F * V F (1 V F ) * m

EM

E11

23 F * VF (1 V F ) * m *
E
1 M2 m * 21 * M
E11

[36]

1 m 12 *

G12 G13

[37]

GM' * G F
G F * (1 V F ) G M' * V F

[38]

G M'

EM
2 * (1 m ) * (1 M2 )

[39]

G23

E 22
2 * (1 23 )

[40]

In these equations E, G and

are the Youngs modulus, shear modulus, and Poissons

ratio of the fiber (index F) and matrix (index M), respectively, as listed in Table 1.

4.3 Unidirectional Continuous Fiber Angle-Ply Lamina

The following equations were applied to determine the properties of angle-ply lamina in
which continuous fiber are aligned at an angle in the positive x-direction [19]:
2
1
cos 4 sin 4 1 1

12 sin 2 2
E xx
E11
E 22
4 G12 E11

[41]

2
1
sin 4 cos 4 1 1

12 sin 2 2
E yy
E11
E 22
4 G12 E11

[42]

1
1 212
1 1 212
1
1
cos 2 2

G xy E11 E11 E 22 E11 E11 E 22 G12

12 1 1 212

1
1
sin 2 2

E11 4 E11 E11 E 22 G12

xy E xx

[43]

[44]