AIAA SciTech Forum 10.2514/6.

2022-1117
January 3-7, 2022, San Diego, CA & Virtual
AIAA SCITECH 2022 Forum

Permanent Shape Change of Thin-Ply Composites

Milinda Yapa Hamillage∗ , Wolfgang Klimm† and Kawai Kwok‡

University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL 32816

Thin-ply composites are a novel design material that can be utilized in lightweight structural
elements in space applications. The limited volume in the satellite requires the structural
components to be folded and stowed for long periods of time before being deployed into the
service configuration. Therefore, the design should ensure that materials do not result in
irreversible deformation during folding and stowage. However, the conditions for yielding
and accumulated permanent deformation have not been investigated. This paper presents an
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experimental study to characterize the permanent deformation of epoxy polymer and thin-ply
composite laminates. A tensile loading-relaxation-recovery test was performed to determine the
yield point and plastic strains of a thermoset epoxy. The permanent shape change of a composite
laminate made from the same epoxy matrix reinforced with plain-weave carbon fabric under
constant curvature bending was characterized using full-field displacement measurements. The
permanent residual curvature of the laminates subjected to two different relaxation conditions
were compared. It is found that a longer bending relaxation period results in an increase in
permanent curvature.

I. Introduction
Thin-ply composites are potential materials for lightweight structural components in aerospace applications such as
solar sails [1]. Composite booms [2, 3] are components acting as the critical structural support to the solar sail during
deployment and post deployed configuration. The limitation of mass and volume on the satellite requires to develop
novel ways of approaching the design of structural elements. Thin ply composites are an ideal candidate to addressing
these limitations due to their low weight and the ability to conform to high curvatures during folding for stowage in a
limited volume.
Booms are slender elements with a cross section that can be flattened. They are flattened and wound on to spools
for stowage on the satellite. Booms store strain energy while folding that is released during unfolding to assist the
deployment of the solar sail and to achieve final shape accuracy of the boom and its cross section. The total recovery
of the boom to its initial designed configuration is crucial to support the solar sail in its service stage. But due to
viscoelastic effects and possible yielding and damage in the polymer matrix there are can be residual deformation at the
time of deployment. However, the strain on account of viscoelasticity is recovered with time but deformations due to
yield and damage are permanent.
A suitable methodology needs to be adopted in order to distinguish between recoverable and permanent deformation
in the polymer matrix. Whitflied and Smith [4] used the initiation of necking as the yield point of dog bone specimens
and axial load drop in tubular specimens. The carbon fiber composite used in the study does not show any physical
necking behavior or a drop in moment while bending even at high curvatures. Raghava [5, 6] employed the strain offset
method similar to classical metal plasticity to determine the yield point from the stress-strain curve. Theocaris [7]
used the non-linear behavior of the stress strain curve to establish an inflection point to determine the yield stress. The
moment curvature relationship exhibits a linear trend rendering it ineffective to use the offset method and the inflection
point method. Quinson [8] deformed different specimens to different strains and the residual strain was measured after
recovery. Given the behavior of the composite in study this was the most suitable methodology that can produce definite
results.
This paper studies the residual permanent deformation of the composite and the yield point of the matrix which is
a constituent of the composite. The matrix yield point is determined by tensile tests with a load-relaxation-recovery
experimental format. The composite under investigation is a 45°oriented 3-ply plain weave laminate under constant
curvature bending by using Column Bending Test (CBT). Laminate tests are done under two approaches. In the first
approach the material was deformed to a predetermined curvature and unloaded immediately. In the second approach,
∗ Graduate Research Assistant, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, milindayapa@knights.ucf.edu.
† Graduate Research Assistant, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, wolfgang.klimm@knights.ucf.edu.
‡ Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, AIAA Senior Member, kawai.kwok@ucf.edu

Copyright © 2022 by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Inc. All rights reserved.
 material was deformed and relaxed for a period of time before unloading to determine the time dependence for permanent
deformation of the thin-ply composite. After recovery, the residual curvature was measured by using a digital image
correlation system.

II. Experiments
Thin-ply plain-weave composite laminates were chosen for this study. The composite were 3-ply laminates fabricated
from M30S carbon fabrics (Toray Industries) and PMT-F7 epoxy resin (Patz Materials and Technologies), prepared at
the NASA Langley Research Center through a curing procedure under vacuum. Neat PMT-F7 epoxy resin specimens
were cured and provided directly by Patz Materials and Technologies.

A. Tensile Loading-Relaxation-Recovery Tests

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Tensile tests were conducted on the epoxy specimens to determine the onset of plasticity and the subsequent permanent
strain. The specimens were rectangular with dimensions 280 mm x 25.5 mm x 2.7 mm. Experiments were performed
using an MTS Criterion electromechanical test system with a 5 kN load cell. A continuous loading-relaxation-recovery
test program was implemented to separate recoverable and irrecoverable strain after specimen unloading. In this test
procedure, the specimens were first loaded with a strain rate of 0.01%/s, held at the same strain level for a specified
amount of time, unloaded at the same strain rate until the stress became zero, and finally left unloaded for free recovery
for at least 48 hours. The purpose of the final recovery period was to allow all viscoelastic strain to diminish so that the
residual strain left behind would be permanent. The axial strain was continuously measured throughout the entire test
using strain gauges from Micro-Measurements. During the recovery period, the specimens were placed in a thermally
insulated box with two Type J thermocouples.
We conducted the tensile experiments at different strain levels: 1.05%, 1.35%, 1.73%, on three different specimens.
The tests were all performed at room temperature where the temperature fluctuations remained within ± 2o C.
In addition to tensile load-relax-recover experiments, tensile failure tests were conducted at room temperature to
establish the failure strain limit of epoxy PMT-F7.

B. Bending Loading-Relaxation-Recovery Tests

Composite laminates were tested under bending following a similar loading-relaxation-recovery procedure. The
column bending test fixture was used to induce bending curvature on the laminates via an eccentric vertical load. The
composite coupon in its unloaded state is shown in Fig.1. The two U-shaped clevises were directly attached to the
mechanical testing machine. The two fixture arms clamping the coupon were free to rotate about the pins that rested on
the clevises. The fixture arms were designed with a counter weight balance mechanism to eliminate gravity induced
shear loading to ensure pure moments were imposed on the coupons [9]. Once the cross head was moved downwards,
the fixture arms rotated and applied a bending moment on the test coupon.
The schematic of the test set up is shown in Fig.2. The pins were located with an offset from the vertical plane of the
unloaded test coupon. At any loaded configuration where a crosshead displacement of 𝛿 is applied, the subtended angle
𝜙 can be related to 𝛿 in terms of fixture arm length 𝐿, offset distance 𝑟 0 and specimen gauge length 𝑠.

2 𝜙 𝜙
𝛿 = 𝑠(1 − sin ) + 2𝐿 [cos 𝜃 − cos(𝜃 + )], (1)
𝜙 2 2

where 𝜃 can be determined from tan 𝜃 = 𝑟 0 /𝐿. The curvature 𝜅 is simply related to the gauge length 𝑠 and subtended
angle 𝜙 by 𝜅 = 𝜙/𝑠.
The moment at the mid section of the specimen is given by 𝑀 = 𝑃𝑟, where 𝑃 is the measured compression force
and 𝑟 is the moment arm given by

𝑠 𝜙 𝜙
𝑟= [1 − cos( )] + 𝐿 sin(𝜃 + ) (2)
𝜙 2 2
The moment and curvature of the composite laminates can be determined completely from the measured crosshead
displacement 𝛿 and vertical load 𝑃.

2
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Fig. 1 Column Bending Test set up.

Fig. 2 Schematic of the CBT test set up.

In the loading-relaxation-recovery procedure, the laminates were bent to a predetermined curvature with a constant
rate of 0.1 mm-1 . After allowing the coupons to relax for a specified period at the fixed curvature, they were unloaded to
a zero load. Immediately after unloading, the coupons contained recoverable viscoelastic strain and potentially some
amount of unrecoverable permanent strain. The samples were allowed to recover freely with a duration selected to be at
least five times the loading time. After the recovery period, the shape of the composite laminates were examined using a
three-dimensional digital image correlation (3D-DIC) system purchased from Correlated Solutions, Inc. to measure any
residual curvature. Fig. 3 shows an example of a coupon prepared for shape measurements. The white paint followed
with a black speckle pattern was applied on the tension side of the coupon. The sample was placed on a flat surface for
observation with the 3D-DIC system and the region marked as gauge length was used to measure the average residual
curvature for each sample.

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 Fig. 3 The coupon prepared for DIC measurements.
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Two different relaxation conditions were imposed to investigate the effect of relaxation period on the residual
curvature. The first set of load-relax-recover experiments were conducted at room temperature with only 20 second
of hold time at constant curvature between loading and unloading. This set represents the case of no relaxation. The
second set of experiments was conducted at 70o C with a relaxation period of 150 minutes before unloading. Each
set contained four coupons that were tested under curvatures of 0.1 mm-1 , 0.125 mm-1 , 0.15 mm-1 and 0.175 mm-1 .
The composite laminates were oriented at 45° to the bending axis. Table 1 and Table 2 show the geometric and test
parameters of test samples used in the bending tests.

Table 1 Coupons used in testing without relaxation at room temperature

Test Coupon Thickness (mm) Width (mm) Initial Curvature (mm-1 ) Gauge length (mm)
SP01 0.205 25.42 0.1 15.86
SP02 0.194 26.08 0.125 16.57
SP03 0.201 25.75 0.15 16.74
SP04 0.199 25.45 0.175 16.63

Table 2 Coupons used in testing with relaxation

Test Coupon Thickness (mm) Width (mm) Curvature (mm-1 ) Gauge length (mm)
SPR01 0.198 25.33 0.1 16.794
SPR02 0.209 25.42 0.125 15.704
SPR03 0.207 25.37 0.15 15.284
SPR04 0.198 25.76 0.175 14.574

III. Results and Discussion

A. Residual Strain of Epoxy

The stress-strain response of PMT-F7 epoxy under constant strain rate uniaxial tension is shown in Fig. 4. The
specimen fractured in a brittle manner at a stress of 63 MPa and the corresponding fracture strain is 2.5%. The
stress-strain response does not display a distinct load drop characteristic of yielding. Therefore, whether or not a
specimen has yielded needs to be determined by examining the presence of residual strain after unloading and allowing
a recovery period.
For the loading-relaxation-recovery tests, the specimens that were strained to 1.05% and 1.35% showed residual
strains below 0.01% after 48 hours of recovery, which is below the measurement uncertainty of the strain gauges. These
specimens were considered to have fully recovered.

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 The test that reached the strain level of 1.73% showed permanent residual strain after recovery. The corresponding
stress reached was 43.2 MPa. The measured strain during the loading, relaxation, unloading, and initial recovery phases
is shown in Fig. 5. Immediately after unloading to zero load, a residual strain of 0.1% can be observed. However, a
large part of this strain is recoverable. Figure 6 depicts the strain during the long recovery phase, where a plastic strain
of 0.03% was produced. The fluctuation of the strain towards the end of the recovery period was due to surrounding
thermal variation as shown by the measured temperature in Fig. 6.
Two additional tests were conducted on the same specimen to confirm yielding had occurred. These two subsequent
tests had maximum strains of 1.67% and 1.75%. Their recovery responses were shown in Fig. 7 and Fig. 8 respectively.
An increase in permanent strain was observed from each additional test. The second (1.67% strain) and the third (1.75%)
cycles started from a nonzero strain, which was the permanent residual deformation achieved in the previous cycle. The
permanent residual strain increased from 0.03% after the first recovery period, to over 0.045% at the end of the second,
and to 0.062% after the third recovery period.
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Based on the non-yielded and yielded specimens, it can be concluded that the yield point for PMT-F7 at room
temperature is between 1.35% (36.2 MPa) and 1.67% (41.8 MPa) and is closer to the latter.

Fig. 4 Stress-strain response of PMT-F7 epoxy at room temperature.

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Fig. 5 Measured strain during loading, relaxation, unloading, and initial recovery.

Fig. 6 Long-term strain recovery for a maximum strain level 1.73%.

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Fig. 7 Long-term strain recovery for a maximum strain level 1.67%.

Fig. 8 Long-term strain recovery for a maximum strain level 1.75%.

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 B. Residual Curvature of Composite Laminates
The moment-curvature responses of the laminates with and without being subjected to relaxation are shown in Fig. 9
and Fig. 10. The moment-curvature behavior shows hysteresis between loading and unloading, which is a result of
viscoelasticity of the composites. For composites that were subjected to relaxation, there was a moment reduction at the
specified constant curvature before unloading. The moment-curvature relationship was observed to be linear during
loading for all tests.
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Fig. 9 Moment per unit width vs curvature for samples without relaxation at 22°Celsius.

Fig. 10 Moment per unit width vs curvature for samples tested with relaxation at 70°Celsius.

The deformed shape of a representative composite specimen after recovery exceeding 48 hours is shown in Fig. 11.

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 The laminates displayed permanent residual curvatures about both the bending axis and the transverse direction. This is
due to the strong bending coupling behavior of the 45° oriented plain-weave laminate. In the column bending test, the
transverse sides of the laminates were free. Therefore when bent about the x-axis the sample bends about the y-axis
as well. This was distinctly captured in the residual curvature measurements. It should be noted that the transverse
curvature is zero at the clamped ends and becomes prominent towards the middle of the gauge length.
Figure 12 illustrates the distribution of localized curvature for two laminates tested with the relaxation period at
70°C. The average curvature was extracted over the gauge length for comparison.
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Fig. 11 Deformed shape of composite laminate after recovery.

(a) (b)

Fig. 12 Distribution of residual curvature for the coupons tested with relaxation component (a) with initial
curvature 0.125 mm-1 and (b) with initial curvature 0.15 mm-1 .

Figure 13 presents the residual curvature measurements for the two sets of samples. Both show a similar trend
of increment in residual curvature as the initial curvature is increased. For the test conducted at room temperature at
0.05 mm-1 curvature, without the relaxation component, no measurable residual curvature was found. Therefore it can
be said that the onset of permanent shape change occurs at a curvature in between 0.05 mm-1 and 0.1 mm-1 for tests

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 conducted at room temperature without the relaxation component. But for the test run at curvature 0.05 mm-1 conducted
at 70° Celsius with the relaxation component displays a permanent residual curvature. Therefore for these conditions,
the onset of residual curvature is below 0.05 mm-1 initial curvature. This can happen either due to the increase of
temperature or the addition of the relaxation period or a combination of both. To study this further, an additional test at
0.1 mm-1 curvature was conducted at 70° Celsius without a relaxation component. The result from this test lie closer to
the test run at 0 ° Celsius than the test run at 70 ° Celsius with the relaxation component. This suggests that the residual
curvature increases significantly with the addition of the relaxation period. This implies a time dependent nature for the
amount of residual curvature accumulated during bending. Therefore, it can be deduced that the length of relaxation
period will affect the final residual curvature as well. Although, this must be confirmed with further studies.

10 -3
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Without relaxation- 22 oC
8
With relaxation- 70 oC
Without Relaxation- 70 oC
7
Residual Curvature [mm-1]

0
0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1 0.12 0.14 0.16 0.18
-1
Initial Curvature [mm ]

Fig. 13 Residual curvature comparison.

IV. Conclusion
The shape recovery of composite deployable structures is essential in order to maintain structural integrity and
shape accuracy. There can be permanent residual deformations in composites after deployment which originate from
time-dependent plasticity of the epoxy matrix. The permanent deformations of epoxy matrix under tension and thin-ply
composite laminates under bending have been experimentally studied.
Using a loading-relaxation-recovery test procedure, yielding of PMT-F7 epoxy has been found to be between 1.35%
and 1.67% strains. Composite laminates oriented at 45° were subjected to constant curvature and allowed to undergo
viscoelastic recovery. True permanent residual curvature have been measured with digital image correlation. The effect
of relaxation period on permanent curvature was investigated.
It was discovered that no measurable permanent deformation is resulted from a bending curvature of 0.05 mm-1 , but
is present for curvatures of 0.1 mm-1 and above for the tests run at room temperature without a relaxation component.
A significant increase in residual curvature is not seen with only an increase in temperature, but once a relaxation
component is introduced a significant increase in residual curvature after recovery can be seen.

Acknowledgments
This research was supported by NASA under the STTR Phase I:T12.01-5412 award 80NSSC20C0583. The authors
thank the NASA Langley Research Center for kindly providing the composite specimens as well as the test fixture.

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