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Effect of Fiber Orientation on Carbon/Epoxy and Glass/Epoxy Composites

Subjected to Shear and Bending

Article  in  Diffusion and Defect Data Pt.B: Solid State Phenomena · October 2017
DOI: 10.4028/www.scientific.net/SSP.267.103

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Solid State Phenomena Submitted: 2017-06-27
ISSN: 1662-9779, Vol. 267, pp 103-108 Revised: 2017-07-15
doi:10.4028/www.scientific.net/SSP.267.103 Accepted: 2017-09-08
© 2017 Trans Tech Publications, Switzerland Online: 2017-10-10

Effect of Fiber Orientation on Carbon/Epoxy and Glass/Epoxy

Composites Subjected to Shear and Bending
Kakur Naresh1,a*, Shankar Krishnapillai1,b and Velmurugan Ramachandran2,c
1
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai, India
2
Department of Aerospace Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai, India
a
nareshaero1991@gmail.com, bskris@iitm.ac.in, cramanv@iitm.ac.in

Keywords: carbon/epoxy; glass/epoxy; three point bending; ILSS; damage mechanics.

Abstract. In this study, the Interlaminar Shear Strength (ILSS) and flexural properties for five
different laminate orientations (0°, 45°, (45°/-45°/45°)s, (±45°/0°/90°)s and 90°) of unidirectional
carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP) and glass fiber reinforced plastic (GFRP) composites are
investigated and compared. The different approach is used by applying the tensile load on double
notched specimens for measuring the inter-laminar shear strength. The theoretical flexural
properties are obtained using the Classical Laminate Theory (CLT). The good agreement is
obtained between the theoretical model and experimental results. The results indicate that the
flexural strength and stiffness are higher for 0° laminates whereas flexural strain is higher for
(45°/-45°/45°)s laminates as compared to other laminates. The scanning electron microscopy is used
to observe the fracture surface of all laminate orientations of CFRP and GFRP composites.

Introduction
An advantage of using composites is a possibility to control the lay-up orientations so that the
isotropic properties can be achieved by making quasi-isotropic laminates and coupling terms can be
ignored using symmetric lay-up sequences e.g. (± 45/0/90)s [1]. The quasi-homogeneous laminate
gives similar properties in bending and extension [2]. In contrast to single failure mode (brittle
tensile failure) in longitudinal tensile loading, the combination of compressive and tensile mode of
failure occurs in three point bending i.e., the top surface of the layers will be subjected to
compression mode and bottom surface of the layers submit to a state of tension. Therefore,
examining the failure phenomenon in bending is more complex than in tension. Furthermore, the
failure occurs rapidly during bending for laminates (e.g. (0°), (90°) and (45°)) of identical lay-ups
orientated in the same direction due to weak fiber network. In order to acquire more failure strain,
laminates should have at least three different plies [3]. In addition to that the brittle polymers induce
surface discontinuities (microcracks) and cavities (voids) in the composites. Hence, the damage
growth is severe in bending and also visually not detectable which cause structural failures [4]. In
order to rectify this, further experimental studies are required for a thorough and unambiguous
understanding of the mechanical behavior of individual and different stacking sequence laminates
under different loading conditions in conjunction with the theoretical modeling for validation of the
experimental results are presented. The CLT is an elegant approach which is used in the current
work for studying the behavior of laminated composite plates in bending [5,6]. This theory predicts
the bending properties of each lamina under the following assumptions: 1) there is a perfect
bonding between the adjacent layers such that the displacements are continuous in the thickness
direction; 2) Each lamina to be considered as a homogeneous and follows the plane stress condition.
In this work, experiments are performed to determine the ILSS and flexural properties of
laminates, for five different orientations of CFRP and GFRP composites. In contrast to symmetric
angle ply (±45°)s laminate, the new symmetric laminate (45°/-45°/45°)s is used and the properties
are correlated with the CLT.

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104 Materials Engineering 2017

Materials Selection, Specimen Preparation and Experimental Details

The materials used for preparing composites are UD carbon fabrics of 400 gsm and glass fabrics
of 450 gsm as reinforcement and epoxy (Araldite) as a matrix with curing agent as a hardener
(HY 951). The fiber and matrix are mixed in the ratio of 1:1 and resin to hardener ratio is 10:1. The
laminates are fabricated using the compression molding technique. There are 6 layers are used for
each laminate orientation (0)6, (45)6, (90)6, (45/-45/45)s and 8 layers are used for the symmetric
quasi-isotropic laminate (± 45/0/90)s. The symmetric quasi-isotropic and symmetric laminates are
shown in Fig. 1 a and b, respectively. As per ASTM D790 and BS 4994, the flexural (Fig. 1 c) and
ILSS specimens (Fig. 1 d) are prepared and the dimensions used are 125 × 12.7 mm and
200 × 20 mm, respectively. The ILSS samples are prepared by inserting the notch on either side
across the specimen in the opposite direction at a distance of 6.35 mm from the centre. Therefore,
the gauge length of 12.7 mm is used for this test.
The flexural and inter-laminar shear tests are carried out up to failure using the Instron universal
testing machine of capacity 5 kN and Blue star universal testing machine of capacity 400 kN,
respectively. The inter-laminar shear tests are conducted to measure the bond strength of
composites by applying the tensile load on notched specimens.

Fig. 1. Schematic diagram: a – symmetric quasi-isotropic laminate; b – symmetric laminate;

c – three points bending specimen; d – double notched specimen (all dimensions are in mm)

Theoretical Modelling
Resultant Force and Moments in a Laminate. The forces and moments per unit length in a plate
are written as [7]:
𝑁𝑁𝑥𝑥 σ𝑥𝑥 𝑀𝑀𝑥𝑥 σ𝑥𝑥
ℎ𝑘𝑘 ℎ𝑘𝑘
� 𝑁𝑁𝑦𝑦 � = ∑𝑘𝑘=1 ∫ℎ
𝑛𝑛
� σ𝑦𝑦 � 𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑 ; � 𝑀𝑀𝑦𝑦 � = ∑𝑘𝑘=1 ∫ℎ
𝑛𝑛
𝑧𝑧 � σ𝑦𝑦 � 𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑 , (1)
𝑁𝑁𝑥𝑥𝑥𝑥
𝑘𝑘−1
τ 𝑥𝑥𝑥𝑥 𝑀𝑀𝑥𝑥𝑥𝑥
𝑘𝑘−1
τ𝑥𝑥𝑥𝑥
where 𝑁𝑁𝑥𝑥 , 𝑁𝑁𝑦𝑦 and 𝑁𝑁𝑥𝑥𝑥𝑥 are the in-plane normal and in-plane shear forces per unit length,
respectively; 𝜎𝜎𝑥𝑥 , 𝜎𝜎𝑦𝑦 𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎 𝜏𝜏𝑥𝑥𝑥𝑥 are the normal and shear stresses, respectively. 𝑀𝑀𝑥𝑥 , 𝑀𝑀𝑦𝑦 𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎 𝑀𝑀𝑥𝑥𝑥𝑥 are
the bending and twisting moments per unit length, respectively. h is the thickness of the laminate.
The force and moments are related to [A], [B] and [D] matrices and laminate strains:
𝑁𝑁 𝐴𝐴 𝐵𝐵 𝜀𝜀𝑥𝑥
� �= � � � �, (2)
𝑀𝑀 𝐵𝐵 𝐷𝐷 𝜀𝜀𝑦𝑦
where, �𝐴𝐴𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖 �, �𝐵𝐵𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖 � 𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎 [𝐷𝐷𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖 ] are the extension, extension-bending coupling and bending stiffness
1
matrices, respectively. �𝐴𝐴𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖 � = ∑𝑛𝑛𝑘𝑘=1 (𝑄𝑄𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖 )𝑘𝑘 (ℎ𝑘𝑘 − ℎ𝑘𝑘−1 ) ; �𝐵𝐵𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖 � = ∑𝑛𝑛𝑘𝑘=1 (𝑄𝑄𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖 )𝑘𝑘 (ℎ2 𝑘𝑘 − ℎ2 𝑘𝑘−1 );
2
1
�𝐷𝐷𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖 � = ∑𝑛𝑛𝑘𝑘=1 (𝑄𝑄𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖 )𝑘𝑘 (ℎ 3
𝑘𝑘 −ℎ 3
𝑘𝑘−1 );
3
 Solid State Phenomena Vol. 267 105

The extensional stiffness matrix and bending matrix for a quasi-isotropic laminate can be written
as:
𝐸𝐸 ℎ v 𝐸𝐸 ℎ 𝐸𝐸 ℎ3 v 𝐸𝐸 ℎ3
⎡(1−𝑣𝑣2 ) 0 ⎤ ⎡12 (1−𝑣𝑣2 )
⎤ 0
(1−𝑣𝑣 2 ) 12 (1−𝑣𝑣 2 )
⎢ v 𝐸𝐸 ℎ 𝐸𝐸 ℎ ⎥ 𝐸𝐸
⎢ v 𝐸𝐸 ℎ3
⎥ ℎ3
�𝐴𝐴𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖 � = ⎢ (1−𝑣𝑣2 ) 2 0 ⎥ ; �𝐷𝐷𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖 � = ⎢
0 ⎥, (3)
(1−𝑣𝑣 ) 2
12 (1−𝑣𝑣 ) ⎢ 12 (1−𝑣𝑣2 )
⎥
⎢ 𝐸𝐸 ℎ ⎥ ⎢
𝐸𝐸 ℎ3 ⎥
⎣ 0 0 2 (1+v)⎦ 0 ⎣ 0
24 (1+v)⎦

where, 𝐸𝐸 and 𝜈𝜈 are the flexural modulus and Poisson’s ratio of the quasi-isotropic laminate.
Flexural Properties. The flexural properties for a symmetric laminate are expressed as:
12 𝑀𝑀𝑥𝑥 12 12 𝑀𝑀𝑦𝑦 12 12
𝐸𝐸𝑥𝑥 𝑓𝑓 = = ℎ3 −1 ; 𝐸𝐸𝑦𝑦 𝑓𝑓 = = −1 ; 𝐺𝐺𝑥𝑥𝑥𝑥 𝑓𝑓 = −1 , (4)
ℎ3 𝐾𝐾𝑥𝑥 𝐷𝐷11 ℎ3 𝐾𝐾𝑦𝑦 ℎ3 𝐷𝐷22 ℎ3 𝐷𝐷66

where, 𝐸𝐸𝑥𝑥 𝑓𝑓 , 𝐸𝐸𝑦𝑦 𝑓𝑓 and 𝐺𝐺𝑥𝑥𝑥𝑥 𝑓𝑓 are the effective flexural longitudinal, transverse and shear moduli,
respectively. 𝐾𝐾𝑥𝑥 and 𝐾𝐾𝑦𝑦 are the bending curvatures. The superscript ‘f’ denotes the flexural data.

Results and Discussion

The comparison of flexural properties and ILSS for different stacking sequences of CFRP and
GFRP composites is seen in Table 1. The 0° laminates have higher flexural strength and modulus
whereas (45/-45/45)s laminates possess higher failure strain due to the presence of (± 45°) lay-ups
in the latter. These lay-ups sustain the higher deformations and postponed the crack propagation to a
later time. In bending, the fiber-matrix cracking and delamination easily occurs in the laminates (0°,
45° and 90°) made of identical plies due to the weak network of fibers which lead to lower failure
strain as compared to different lay-up laminates ((45/-45/45)s and (±45/0/90)s). It is also observed
(Table 1) that the 0° laminates have higher ILSS whereas 90° laminates follow the opposite trend.
The high load bearing capacity of CFRP composites exhibit the high flexural strength and modulus
and low failure strain when compared to GFRP composites of all laminate ply orientations.
Table 1. Mechanical properties for different orientations of CFRP and GFRP composites
Material Flexural properties 0 45 (45/-45/45)s (± 45/0/90)s 90
Flexural strength [MPa] 929 ± 33.8 101.1 ± 10.5 184.8 ± 9.45 541.9 ± 16.6 92 ± 5.11
Flexural strain [%] at peak load 1.47 ± 0.19 1.14 ± 0.1 3.1 ± 0.3 1.98 ±0.14 0.72 + 0.05
CFRP Flexural strain [%] 5.46 ± 0.3 1.92 ± 0.11 21 ± 1 8.64 ± 2 1.84 ± 0.15
Flexural modulus [GPa] 73.75 ± 1.9 10.5 ± 0.7 9.5 ± 0.86 38.53 ± 1.17 6 ± 0.77
ILSS [MPa] 61 ± 4.24 13.33 ± 0.57 41 ± 4.21 37 ± 2.82 8.75 ± 1
Flexural strength [MPa] 878.4 ± 7.9 99.32 ± 0.95 167.39 ± 3 333.9 ± 30.9 86.57 ± 4.5
Flexural strain [%] at peak load 3.39 ± 0.1 1.42 ± 0.1 5.6 ± 0.38 3.51 ± 0.83 2.15 ± 0.41
GFRP Flexural strain [%] 6.08 ± 0.31 3.48 ± 0.72 31 ± 1.41 15.73 ± 3.7 3.1 ± 0.2
Flexural modulus [GPa] 26.25 ± 0.6 8.11 ± 0.57 7.67 ± 0.29 14.31 ± 1.84 4.45 ± 0.63
ILSS [MPa] 27.5 ± 3.5 14.5 ± 2.12 15.75 ± 2.87 27.66 ± 7.5 9.5 ± 0.7
The keen observations are made from Fig. 2 a and b that the stress-strain curves follow three
regions in bending: 1) linear variation of load and displacement until the peak load is attained;
2) sudden drop of the load due to fiber-matrix interface cracking or delamination; 3) plateau region
until complete laminate fails. It is also observed from these plots that before the maximum load the
specimens undergo no or very less deformation. Similar observations are found elsewhere [8]. The
elastic region of three point bending curves indicates the different slopes for different laminate
orientations owing to the rigidity of the plates. The elastic region slope values are presented in
Table 1, the 0° laminates being the most rigid. This can be attributed to a greater number of fibers
located in the loading direction. The same trend is observed for both glass/epoxy and carbon/epoxy
composites. Therefore, it is essential to note that the stress-strain behavior is different for
composites subjected to three point bending as compared to tension. The stress-strain curves rarely
have plateau region during tensile loading [9, 10].
106 Materials Engineering 2017

Flexural Properties using CLT. The in-plane flexural and shear moduli are presented for ([45/
−45/45]𝑠𝑠 and [±45/0/90]𝑠𝑠 laminates of CFRP composite:
12 12
�𝐸𝐸𝑥𝑥 𝑓𝑓 �[45/−45/45] = ℎ3 𝐷𝐷−1 = 8.47 GPa; �𝐺𝐺𝑥𝑥𝑥𝑥 𝑓𝑓 �[45/−45/45] = ℎ3 𝐷𝐷−1 = 11.37 GPa ;
𝑠𝑠 11 𝑠𝑠 66
12 12
�𝐸𝐸𝑥𝑥 𝑓𝑓 �[±45/0/90] = ℎ3 𝐷𝐷−1 = 38.55 GPa ; �𝐺𝐺𝑥𝑥𝑥𝑥 𝑓𝑓 �[±45/0/90] = ℎ3 𝐷𝐷 −1 66
= 14.41 GPa ;
𝑠𝑠 11 𝑠𝑠
The in-plane flexural and shear moduli are presented for [45/−45/45]𝑠𝑠 and [±45/0/90]𝑠𝑠
laminates of GFRP composite:
12 12
�𝐸𝐸𝑥𝑥 𝑓𝑓 �[45/−45/45] = ℎ3 𝐷𝐷−1 = 7.22 GPa ; �𝐺𝐺𝑥𝑥𝑥𝑥 𝑓𝑓 �[45/−45/45] = ℎ3 𝐷𝐷−1 = 5.82 GPa
𝑠𝑠 11 𝑠𝑠 66
12 12
�𝐸𝐸𝑥𝑥 𝑓𝑓 �[±45/0/90] = ℎ3 𝐷𝐷−1 = 14.28 GPa ; �𝐺𝐺𝑥𝑥𝑥𝑥 𝑓𝑓 �[±45/0/90] = ℎ3 𝐷𝐷 −1 66
= 4.79 GPa;
𝑠𝑠 11 𝑠𝑠

a b
Fig. 2. Flexural stress-strain curves for different orientations: a – CFRP; b – GFRP
It is observed that the deviation between the experimental (Table 1) and theoretical flexural
modulus for CFRP composites of (45/-45/45)s and (± 45/0/90)s laminates are less than 2.1 % and
0.1 %, respectively. The corresponding variation for GFRP composites of same laminate
orientations are less than 6.3 % and 0.25 %.
Fractography Analysis. Using Inspect F50 scanning electron microscope (SEM), the fracture
surface for different orientations of CFRP and GFRP composites subjected to bending are
investigated. These micrographs are taken at the same magnification for better comparison which
are presented in Fig. 3. Fiber breakage and fiber-matrix debonding are seen in Fig. 3 a and b for
CFRP and GFRP composites of 0° laminates, respectively. Observing Fig. 3 c, d, i and j, 45° and
90° laminates seem to be failed by shear stresses which induce matrix cracks in the weaker regions.
These cracks increase upon loading. The fiber-matrix debonding and matrix cracking are seen in
identical ply laminates (0°, 45° and 90°) whereas delamination is seen in a criss-cross ply laminates
((45/-45/45)s and (±45/0/90)s). Even though these laminates have a strong fiber network than the
identical ply laminates, which starts producing delamination in some regions after reaching the peak
load.

Summary
The interlaminar shear strength and flexural properties for five different laminate orientations of
carbon/epoxy and glass/epoxy composites are investigated. The classical laminate theory is used for
obtaining the theoretical properties. The theoretical model and experimental results match well. The
results indicated that for both CFRP and GFRP composites, the flexural strength and modulus are
higher for 0° laminates whereas flexural strain is higher for (45°/-45°/45°)s laminates when
compared to other laminates. This is owing to the presence of (± 45°) lay-ups in the latter. These
 Solid State Phenomena Vol. 267 107

plies withstand the higher deformations and hindered the crack propagation. Comparison of CFRP
and GFRP laminates of the same stacking sequences, the obtained ILSS, flexural strength and
modulus are higher for CFRP laminates than GFRP laminates. SEM micrographs showed the fiber
breakage, fiber-matrix debonding, fiber-matrix interface cracking and matrix cracking in 0°, 45°
and 90° laminates.

Fig. 3. SEM micrographs for different laminate orientations: 0°– a, b; 45°– c, d;

(45°/-45°/45°)s – e, f; (±45°/0°/90°)s – g, h; 90°– i, j;
CFRP – a, c, e, g, i; GFRP – b, d, f, h, j in bending
 108 Materials Engineering 2017

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