Composite Structures 243 (2020) 112234

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Composite Structures
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/compstruct

Experimental and numerical analysis of progressive damage and failure T

behavior of carbon Woven-PPS
Leila Jebria, Fethi Abbassib, , Murat Demiralb, Mohamed Soulac,d, Furqan Ahmade
⁎

a
LMPE, ENSIT, University of Tunis, 5 Avenue Hussein, BP, 56, Bâb Manara, 1008, Tunisia
b
College of Engineering and Technology, American University of the Middle East, Kuwait
c
LMAI-ENIT, Tunis El Manar University, Tunis, Tunisia
d
Mechanical Engineering Department, ENSIT, University of Tunis, 5 Avenue Hussein, BP, 56, Bâb Manara, 1008, Tunisia
e
Department of Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering, College of Engineering, Dhofar University, Oman

ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT

Keywords: This paper presents a study of the progressive damage of 5-harness satin weave carbon/PPS composite plates
Carbon/PPS having three layers through experimental and numerical investigations. Uniaxial tensile tests were conducted for
3D Hashin damage three different orientations of the composite material samples (warp, diagonal and weft) for their character-
Experimental mechanics ization at room temperature. The damage initiation and its progress were visualized via CCD cameras. Digital
DIC
Image Correlation (DIC) analyses were used to quantify the evolution of strain fields, where the resulting failure
Numerical simulation
markings were characterized via microscopic analyses. In parallel, a three-dimensional finite element model of
Microscopic analysis
the test was developed using ABAQUS/Explicit to reproduce the behavior of the material, where a three-di-
mensional Hashin damage initiation criteria with its complementary damage progress law was implemented
using a VUMAT subroutine. Cohesive zone elements were used between the composite layers to simulate the
delamination in the course of deformation. A good agreement was achieved between the experimentally ob-
tained strain fields using DIC and the numerical results. Microscopic analyses in the unnotched and notched
specimens revealed the active damage modes such as the intra-ply damage and the delamination. It was found
that the fiber fracture was the dominating failure mechanism for all the studied specimens.

1. Introduction
Woven composite materials are playing a major role in aerospace,
naval and automobile industries. They present many advantages com-
pared to metals such as higher specific mechanical properties and
longer lifecycle. On the other hand, their damage tolerance and energy
absorption performances were observed to be better than those of the
traditional laminated composite structures. These materials are sub-
jected to different loading conditions including impact, shock and fa-
tigue during their services life. Mechanical fasteners are frequently used
in their constructions, where they are generally drilled and assembled
by rivets, which may generate damaged areas inside the laminate [1].
However, the reliability of these structures under such loading condi-
tions depends on many factors including progress of damage up to the
catastrophic fracture. Muc et al. [2] studied the characteristics of da-
mage modes in stratified panels for different open hole shapes such as
elliptical and circular. Experimentally observed damage growth under
static or fatigue loading showed three different phases in the studied
material. The first one presented a rapid grow of the damage. In the
second one, the damage progressed steadily but slowly, signifying the
presence of the “X” pattern of the crack tangent to the hole edge and
parallel to the fiber direction. For the third phase, the damage grew
rapidly again depending onto the delamination growth and the final
rupture. Baere et al. [3] studied the interlaminar fracture behavior of 5-
harness carbon fabric reinforced thermoplastic under different loading
modes. In connection with this study, Fracasso et al. [4] studied the
effect of deformation rate and temperature on the values of the fracture
toughness (for Mode I and II) for interleaved PEEK/CF composites.
Kergomard et al. [5] investigated the quasi-unidirectional stratified
fiber glass/epoxy structures. It was concluded that the interlaminar
damage grew along the full length of the interfaces relatively uniformly
and perhaps propagated more gradually than the case of unidirectional
laminate structures. Also, for different sequences such as(0°, ±45° , 90°)s ,
the damage in the inter-ply and inter-yarn were strongly associated to
the intra-laminar cracking. Experimental studies in [6,7] investigated
different woven composite laminates under quasi-static tensile loading

⁎
Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: fethi.abbassi@aum.edu.kw, abbassi.fethi1@gmail.com (F. Abbassi).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compstruct.2020.112234
Received 3 January 2020; Received in revised form 7 March 2020; Accepted 16 March 2020
Available online 19 March 2020
0263-8223/ © 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
L. Jebri, et al. Composite Structures 243 (2020) 112234

Fig. 1. Dimensions of a 5-harness satin weave composite specimen samples (a) unnotched sample (b) notched sample (c) different samples orientations (all di-
mensions are in mm).

to understand their damage mechanisms. Lisle et al. [8] examined the

Fig. 2. The digital image correlation principle.
Fig. 3. The tensile test setup with DIC.
damage growth of a thin woven composite laminate under tensile
loading using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). Failure of the
specimens including the major damage modes and fiber cracks were
analyzed. Some studies were dedicated to the modelling of damage in
composite materials. Mainly, the progressive damage in composite
materials including transverse cracking, delamination and fiber
breakage were considered [9,10]. Lee [11] developed damage models
to predict intra-laminar and inter-laminar failure for fibre-reinforced
composite materials. Junshan et al. [12] simulated the evolution of
damage in notched composite laminates under tensile and compressive
loadings. Daggumati et al. [13] used a meso FE model to model the
local damage of a 5-harness satin weave composite subjected to the
static loading. It was showed that an early damage initiation occurred
at the edges of the weft yarn, whereas in the later stage the free surface
unit cells predicted damage. Zako et al. [14] proposed a constitutive
law considering anisotropic damage using the Murakami damage
tensor. Fang et al. [15] simulated the damage evolution of a 3D four-
directional braided composite to determine the failure modes, which
was controlled by the equivalent displacements and fracture energy of
the material. Huhne et al. [16] compared two different damage models:
one was with constant degradation and another was continuous de-
gradation of material constants. It was concluded that the results of the
latter model were correlated better with those of the experiments. In
this investigation, the Stereo-Image Correlation (SIC) method is used to
evaluate the composite behavior based on mechanical tests [17]. The
3D-Digitial Image Correlation (DIC) is a kind of computer stereo-vision
and has the same principle as the human eyes have. This method, based
on both DIC [18] and stereovision, was developed at the end of the last
century [19–22]. It uses a DIC algorithm to define point corre-
spondences between two images of a specimen attained from two dif-
ferent calibrated cameras.
The mechanical behavior of 5-harness satin weave carbon/PPS
composite with different fiber orientations under tensile loading was
investigated thoroughly. The present research encompasses experi-
mental testing, microscopic analysis and simulations. The damage in-
itiation and its evolution process in the notched and unnotched tensile
specimens were monitored by CCD cameras, where the DIC analysis
[23] was performed to generate the dynamic full-field strain contours.
The microscopic analyses of fractured areas were performed in depth to
elucidate the failure modes. To model the behavior of the carbon/PPS

2
L. Jebri, et al. Composite Structures 243 (2020) 112234

Table 1
Mechanical properties of Carbon/PPS laminates.
E11(GPa) E22 (GPa) E33 (GPa) 12 13 = 23 0
G12 ( GPa) 0
G13 ( GPa) 0
G23 ( GPa)

51.031 50.751 10.53 0.07 0.41 4.36 3.048 3.045

Fig. 4. 3D finite element model of tensile test for composite 5-harness satin weave carbon fiber.

Table 2 specimens under loading, its 3D Finite Element (FE) model was devel-
Strength and Damage data for T300JB/PPS 5HS weave composite. oped, where the 3D Hashin damage model with a suitable damage
Strength XT [MPa] YT [MPa] S12 [MPa] S13 S23 [MPa] progress law was implemented using a VUMAT subroutine. Cohesive
[13,25] XC [MPa] YC [MPa] [MPa] zone elements were used to model the delamination between layers.
754 734 56 56
618 621 56
2. Experimental investigation
Damage [34] Gft [N/mm] Gfc [N/mm] Gmt [N/mm] Gmc [N/mm]
127.0 94.0 1.0 8.0
2.1. Material and sample preparation

Table 3 In this study carbon fabric reinforced laminates made of a semi-

Interface properties of T300JB/PPS 5HS weave composite [36]. crystalline high-performance PPS were investigated. The woven ply
45 35
prepreg consists of 5-harness satin weave carbon fiber fabrics [24].
t10 (MPa) t20 = t30 (MPa)
Satin weaves are more pliable, freely adapt to complex curved surfaces
G10 (N/mm) 0.3 G20 = G30 (N/mm) 1.0 and provide enhanced drape features than the plain weave pattern [25].
The volume fraction of carbon fibers in the composite is 50%. The
carbon/PPS composites have excellent temperature stability, chemical
resistance, and toughness [24]. The composite plates manufactured by
Hexcel [26] were cut by water jet resulting in test specimens with the
dimensions according to the ASTM standard D3039/D3039M [27] as
shown in Fig. 1. The cutting was performed in three different directions,
namely at 0°, 45°, and 90° to study the behavior of the laminates in the
warp and weft directions as well as to study its shear behavior. The
tensile specimens were straight-sided and has a constant cross-section.
Aluminum heels (tabs) were glued to the ends of the specimens to
prevent compression damage in the jaws.

2.2. Digital image correlation

The 3D coordinates on the specimen surface can be rebuilt from the

point correspondences by means of the triangulation method. Fig. 2
depicts the principle of DIC. The 3-D displacement field was obtained
Fig. 5. Experimental and numerical force-displacement curves of woven com-
through the correlation between images before and after deformation
posites when loaded in warp and weft directions.
(corresponding to the initial and deformed geometries in Fig. 2, re-
spectively), which transferred to a strain field by numerical

3
L. Jebri, et al. Composite Structures 243 (2020) 112234

du du
x = x + u0 + dx + dy
dx dy (2)

dv dv
y = y + v0 + dx + dy,
dx dy (3)

2.3. Experimental test setup

Several quasi-static tensile tests were carried out to analyze the

damage and failure behavior of composite plate samples at room tem-
perature using the setup shown in Fig. 3. They were performed using
Instron machine with a load capacity of 100 kN at a rate of 1 mm/min.
The loading stopped when it dropped to 40% of the peak load.
The tests for each orientation of the composites were conducted
three times to check their repeatability. The mechanical properties of
the composite carbon/PPS shown in Table 1 are averaged values. The
longitudinal and shearing modulus were determined as follow in ac-
cordance with the ASTM D3039 [27] / ASTM D3518 [29] standards:
Fx
Ex = ,
S. x (4)

Fx
G12 = .
2S 12 (5)
where Fi is the difference between the applied tensile loads at
Fig. 6. The DIC images of samples oriented in the warp (a) and weft (b) di- ( x ) 2 = 0.0025 and ( x )1 = 0.0005, S is the cross-sectional area of the
rections upon failure.
specimen. 12 = x y represents the shearing distortion, where
x and y are the difference in the longitudinal and transverse di-
rections, respectively and calculated based on the strain values ob-
tained using DIC along the X and Y axis. Using the tensile tests com-
pleted in the warp and weft directions, the values E11, E22 , G12 0
, 12
presented in Table 1 were obtained. The properties relevant to the
thickness direction were taken from [11].
The 3D non-contact measurement method was used to measure the
full field displacement of the samples during the tensile loading. In this
technique, the specimen surface is required to be painted using white
and black color to create a random speckle pattern. It includes two
high-speed CCD (Coupled Charge Device) cameras fixed in front of the
sample on a stable tripod. These cameras are synchronized with the
tensile machine in order to record the load and the corresponding
image through the VIC-3D software set and a data acquisition system.
Before starting the experiments, calibration of the two cameras was
Fig. 7. Experimental and numerical force–displacement curve of woven com- performed to recognize the geometrical position of each image during
posites with 45° orientation. tests. A powerful LED light source was used to illuminate the specimen
surface. The VIC-3D software was used to calculate the full field dis-
differentiation. placements on the surface of samples, which provide a large data to be
The distance between the position coordinates of the two points investigated and analyzed.
equals to the displacement after deformation. The correlation coeffi-
cient equals to the following [28]: 3. Numerical modeling

m m
[f (xi , yi ) f ][g (x i , yi ) g] The 3D FE model of quasi-static tensile test for the 5-harness satin
C (u , v ) =
i=1 j=1
weave carbon fiber composite with three laminates was developed, as
m m
[f (x i , yi ) f ]2
m m
[g (x i , yi ) g ]2 shown in Fig. 4. Dimensions of the workpiece material simulated were
i=1 j=1 i=1 j=1
150 mm × 25 mm × 1 mm. Simulations were run using ABAQUS FE
(1) software [30] with explicit time integration scheme quasi-statically.
where the correlation coefficient C (u, v ) is a function of horizontal The laminates were meshed with C3D8R solid elements (having 8 nodes
displacement u and vertical displacement v , the coordinates (xi , yi ) and with hourglass control and reduced integration). The inter-laminar
(xi , yi ) are associated by the translations between two digital image. damage, i.e. the delamination, was modelled by COH3D8 elements
The functions f (x i , yi ) and g (x i , yi ) are the gray scale value at point (x, (linear cohesive) with a thickness of 0.035 mm. In the mesh study, an
y) in the original and the translated image respectively and their cor- element size of 0.6 mm in the longitudinal and transverse directions
was found to be optimum as a compromise between computation time
responding mean values of the intensity matrices are f and g .
and accuracy of the results. Fig. 4 presents the boundary conditions
For the small deformation which is perpendicular to the camera
considered in the simulations for the specimen subjected to tensile
optical axis, the relationship between (xi , yi ) and (xi , yi ) can be ap-
loading. While one end was fixed (clamped), another one allowed to
proximated by 2D transformation using Eqs. (2) and (3), where u 0 and
move only in the direction of the tensile loading. The composite layers
v0 are horizontal and vertical translation, respectively.
were treated as elastic lamina, where the damage was modelled using

4
L. Jebri, et al. Composite Structures 243 (2020) 112234

Fig. 8. Distribution of the axial strain on the surface of deformed woven composite with 45°orientation obtained using (a) DIC results and (b) 3D FE simulation, (c)
Distribution of fiber tension damage factor just before the failure of the specimen.

5
L. Jebri, et al. Composite Structures 243 (2020) 112234

Fig. 9. Micrographs of deformed carbon//PPS material: (a) warp direction, (b) weft direction.

the Hashin failure criterion [31] and the damage evolution law. Co- Matrix tension and/or shear ( 22 + 33 0)
hesive zone modelling was used to simulate the delamination of lami-
1 1 1 1
nates. Fmt = ( 22 + 33 )
2 + ( 2
23 22 33) + ( 2
12 ) + ( 2
13)
(YT )2 (S23)2 (S12)2 (S13) 2
The Hashin failure criterion including fiber tensile (ft), fiber com-
pression (fc), matrix tensile (mt) and matrix compression (mc) failure (8)
modes was used in the simulations. The indexes F ft , F fC , Fmt , FmC re- Matrix compression ( 22 + 33 < 0)
present the criteria for each mode as shown in the following to indicate
whether the damage initiation criterion was satisfied. FmC
Fiber tension ( 11 0 ) 1 YC
2
1 1
= 1 ( + 2
22 33) + ( 22 + 33 ) +
2 YC 2S23 4(S23) 2 (S23) 2
11 1
F ft = + ( 2
12 + 2
13) 1 1
XT (S12 )2 (6) ( 2
23 22 33) + ( 2
12 ) + ( 2
13)
(S12)2 (S13) 2 (9)
Fiber compression ( 11 < 0)
where, ij are the stress components for i, j = 1, 2, 3, where 1 and 2 are
11
2 in-plane fiber and matrix directions, respectively, and 3 is the out-of-
F fC = plane direction. XT , XC and YT and YC represent the strengths of fiber and
XC (7)
the matrix in the tensile (denoted by subscript T) and compressive

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L. Jebri, et al. Composite Structures 243 (2020) 112234

Fig. 10. Micrographs of deformed carbon/PPS specimen (tensile test in 45° direction).

1 21 31
E11 (1 df ) E22 E33
0 0 0
12 1 32
E11 E22 (1 dm ) E33
0 0 0
0 0 0
13 23 1
E11 E22 E33 (1 dm)
S=
1
0 0
2G12 (1 ds )
0 0 0 1
0 0 0 0 0
2G13 (1 ds )
0 0 0 1
0 0
2G 23 (1 ds )

(10)
Eij , ij , Gij are the engineering constants. Shear nonlinearities in the
constitutive equation is taken into account using
Gij = Gij0 + c1 (e c2 12 1) , where c1 and c2 are material constants [32].
The respective values, 2000 and 48, were obtained for an agreement
between the experimentally obtained P-δ curve and the numerical one
from simple tensile test of woven carbon/PPS sample oriented at 45°.
Here, df , dm and ds are damage variables representing the damage for
fiber, matrix and shear, respectively with df = 1 (1 dft ) (1 dfc ) ,
dm equals to dmt for 22 + 33 > 0 else dmc and
ds = 1 (1 dft ) (1 dfc ) (1 dmt ) (1 dmc ) .
The damage parameter for each failure mode, i.e. the damage
evolutions, is ruled by the following equation:
f 0
I , eq ( I , eq I , eq )
dI = f 0
(I = ft , fc, mt , mc ),
I , eq ( I , eq I , eq ) (11)
where 0
and
I , eq are the equivalent displacements when the damage
f
I , eq
initiates and completed, respectively. The second term is calculated
Fig. 11. (a) The side view for the zoomed micrograph of deformed carbon/PPS using If, eq = 2GI / I , eq , where GI and I , eq are the fracture toughness and
specimen (tensile test in 45° direction) (b) deformed configuration obtained equivalent stress of the respective mode. The formulations for the
with the FE simulations. equivalent terms can be found elsewhere [33]. The properties given in
Tables 1 and 2 were used to model the behavior of the T300JB/PPS 5HS
(denoted by subscript C) directions, respectively. S12 , S13 andS23 are the weave composite in the simulations.
longitudinal and the two transverse shear strengths, respectively. When The inter-ply damage was simulated using cohesive zone elements,
any of the indexes exceeds 1, the initial damage occurs. capable of capturing the start and spread of delamination. In this
The reduction of the values of stiffness coefficients which generates model, failure of elements was described by the growing degradation of
the effect of damage was accounted for using the classical strain–stress the stiffness of the material through a damage process. The following
relationship = S: , where they were strain tensor, compliance matrix stress criterion (quadratic type) is used for damage initiation:
as the inverse of the stiffness matrix and stress tensor, respectively. t1
2
t2
2
t3
2
+ + =1
t10 t 20 t30 (12)
where t10 , t20 , and t30 are interfacial strengths corresponding to the

7
L. Jebri, et al.
Fig. 12. Distributions of the shear and axial strains on the surface of notched carbon/PPS specimen (tensile test in warp direction) obtained using (a, b) DIC technique
and (c, d) FE simulations, respectively (just before the failure of the specimen).
commencement of separation for different modes, such as Mode 1:
normal mode, Mode 2: first shear mode, and Mode 3: second shear
mode, respectively. t1, t2 and t3 denote the respective traction normal
stress and shear stresses, respectively. <> is the Macaulay bracket
where < > equals to ( + | |)/2.
The equation shown in the following – a second order power law as
the interaction of the energies to lead a failure in the normal, first and
second shear directions, respectively – is used to predict the delami-
nation spread under mixed-mode loading conditions.
2 2 2 numerical model are in satisfactory agreement with the experimental
G1 G2 G3
+ + =1
G10 G20 G30
Here, Gi and (i = 1, 2, 3) refer to the work done by the traction
Gi0
and its conjugate relative displacement and the critical fracture en-
ergies required to cause failure in each of the three directions, respec-
tively. The constants of this interface layer are given in Table 3. Dau-
deville et al. [35] defined the stiffness of resin-rich interface between
plies as K = E33/t, where E33 (equaled to 10.5 GPa) was the material’s
stiffness in the thickness direction and t was the thickness (t equaled to
35 µm, see Fig. 4). Based on this, interface stiffness value of around
3x105 N/mm3 was used in the simulations.
4. Results and discussions
In this section, the damage mechanisms in woven-ply of carbon/PPS
laminates for their notched and unnotched samples were discussed in a
row. Experimentally and numerically obtained load–displacement
curves and the strain fields on sample surface were used to analyse the
material’s behavior.
4.1. Unnotched samples
Fig. 5 shows the experimentally and numerically obtained for-
ce–displacement curves during the tensile test of the unnotched woven
composites loaded in the warp and weft directions. They are in good
correlation for the both loading directions, where the displacement
remains proportional to the force applied until the failures of the
samples occurring suddenly, i.e. the specimens oriented at 0° and 90°
shows a linear-elastic behavior. Due to the similar material properties
Composite Structures 243 (2020) 112234
in both weft and warp directions (see Sections 2 and 3), a similar re-
sponse is observed. Fig. 6 shows the DIC images of the specimens upon
failure. It shows that the damage in the fibers develops in the direction
normal to the loading direction in a band and extending over the whole
width.
Fig. 7 shows the results for the tensile test of the woven sample
where the fibers are oriented with an angle of 45° with respect to the
loading direction. Since the constitutive law accounted for the shear
nonlinearity effects (see Section 3), the predictions using the developed
results.
(13) It is known that the in-plane shear strength reaches its peak value
when the orientation of the laminate is closer to 45°. Therefore, this
sample could withstand the load at larger displacements. Its response
can be considered in three phases. A first linear elastic phase was ob-
served up to a deformation value of 0.68% (corresponding to 1.7 mm in
displacement). It can be characterized by an elastic modulus E45. In the
second phase (0.68% < ε < 7% corresponding to between 1.7 mm and
18 mm) the force–displacement curve lost its linearity. The nonlinear
behavior of the woven material here is characterized by the warp and
weft relative reorientation, where the onset of microcracking starts with
the appearance in matrix. Ultimately, in the third phase, for ε > 7%
corresponding to the displacement > 18 mm, the fracture of the fibers
in the carbon/PPS sample occurred, where the continuous evolution of
this damage under the effect of loading stresses led to delamination. It’s
surmised that the behavior is therefore of the “ductile nonlinear” type
[13].
Fig. 8(a) shows the history of the strain distribution on the sample
oriented with 45°obtained by DIC calculations. In the initial stage, the
deformation was almost uniform on the entire surface followed by the
progress in the shearing in the second stage. This was accompanied by
the damage in the matrix and resulted in ultimately the localization of
the damage and failure of the fibers eventually. Fig. 8(b) shows the
distribution of the axial strain on the sample surface upon the failure of
the specimen obtained by the FE simulations. The mappings make it
possible to measure deformations over a large area in the vicinity of the
rupture, which subsequently makes it possible to compare the experi-
ments and simulations interestingly. A sufficient correlation between
experimentally obtained and predicted failure location, appearing in a
8
L. Jebri, et al.
Fig. 13. (a) Micrographs of deformed notched carbon/PPS specimen (tensile test in warp direction) (b) deformed configuration obtained with the FE simulations.
diagonal direction, was obtained. Fig. 8(c) shows the damage dis-
tribution for the fiber tension on the sample’s surface. The red and
green contours represent a chevron-shape, where the maximum value
of the damage is attained at the intersection of two diagonal directions.
The enlarged views of the deformed woven composites were ana-
lyzed. Fig. 9 shows the damaged micrographs of the carbon/PPS ma-
terial after the test in the warp and the weft directions. These images
present the fragile fracture phenomenon over the entire width for both
directions. This fracture mode mainly depends on fiber rupture and
debonding between fibers and the matrix. The longitudinal and trans-
verse intra-bundle cracking on the surface propagated and generating
damaged areas out of the fracture site of the specimen. The microscopic
analyses after the catastrophic failure demonstrated that the phe-
nomena observed in the woven structure were the buckling of warp
yarns and pull-out of highly drawn fibers. Experimental failure analyses
are complicated and cannot be captured with the present numerical
model, where they can be achieved with the development of micro- and
meso-scale models.
Fig. 10 presents the micrographs of the deformed woven carbon/
PPS material aligned 45° to the loading direction. A decrease in the
width of the specimen was observed before the specimen failure due to
9
Composite Structures 243 (2020) 112234
the Poisson’s effect. This effect is clearly observed as the laminate
carried the load up to larger displacement values. In contrast to the
failure modes observed in the warp and weft directions, a shear failure
was observed here. The observed failures are mainly the multiple
longitudinal and transverse cracks and shearing of the matrix. The
failure was also detected in longitudinal yarns due to the bending ef-
fects due to the undulation of yarns. There occurred interactions be-
tween yarns and excessive distortion of the reinforcement. Multiple
parallel transverse and longitudinal cracks of yarns were also observed.
The side view for the enlarged deformed specimen (with 45° fiber
orientation) shown in Fig. 11(a) revealed that the delamination was
observed within the tape laminate interconnected by transverse cracks
through the middle layer. This was also successfully captured in the FE
simulations (see Fig. 11(b)). The development of the translaminar crack
network resulted in the propagation of delamination with the si-
multaneous formation of transverse cracks. Consequently, the delami-
nation diverted through an adjacent layer. It was noted that the dela-
mination propagated in resin-rich areas between the layers depending
on residual stresses in the resin near the fibers providing a lower energy
for crack propagation.
It can be noted that the delamination leads to a presence of
L. Jebri, et al.
transverse cracking. This can be explained by the fact that a resin-rich
pocket is associated with the initiation of the cracks. From a fracture-
energy point of view, it is well recognized that the fracture toughness is
greater for a transverse (intra- or trans-ply) cracking than that for the
delamination (see the Tables 2 and 3). However, the transverse
cracking is extended along the whole thickness of the laminate. It can
be noted that the delamination is an effective toughening mechanism of
the laminate composite material whereby the fracture energy dissipates
at the expenses of a trans-laminar cracking conducting to the failure.
4.2. Notched samples
To facilitate fastener assembly of composite parts, hole drilling
operations are commonly used. In this section, the rupture modes of
such a perforated specimen with 5 mm central hole is analyzed. Fig. 12
shows the shear (a, c) and axial (b, d) strain distributions on the surface
of a specimen aligned in the warp direction just before the failure oc-
curs obtained by DIC calculations and FE simulation, respectively. Since
the hole acts as a stress concentrator, the strains reach their maximum
values around it. A good match between the experimental and nu-
merical results was obtained.
Fig. 13(a) shows the micrographs of the deformed specimen. A
fragile fracture phenomenon was also observed here. The active failure
modes here were the transverse fibers’ breakage and the debonding of
the fibers/matrix interface. The fibers were seen to be in hackles con-
figuration confirming the relatively weak fiber/matrix bonding. It was
observed that the cracks initiated at the edge of the hole and evolved
laterally until the breakage of the studied material. Fig. 13(b) presents
numerically obtained propagation of the crack around the hole in the
course of deformation. It was observed that the trans-ply failure due to
fiber breakage progressed around the hole and ultimately reached to
the edges, while the delamination also took place in the workpiece
material.
5. Conclusions
In this work, the failure behavior of 5-harness satin weave carbon/
PPS composite material for notched and unnotched specimens under
tensile loading was investigated. The DIC technique was used to iden-
tify the initiation and progress of the damage in the studied material.
From the study, the followings were concluded:
• The elastic properties of the 5-harness satin weave carbon/PPS
composite in different directions were extracted experimentally.
They were later used in the developed FE model, where the behavior
of the material was modelled using the 3D Hashin failure criterion
implemented via VUMAT subroutine. A good agreement between
the experimental and simulation results in terms of the load–dis-
placement curves and the strain fields was achieved.
• While a linear behavior up to failure was observed in both warp and
weft directions, a nonlinear one was noticed when the fibers are
aligned with 45° to the tensile direction. In the former one, the
longitudinal and transverse intra-bundle cracking on the surface
propagated where the buckling of warp yarns and the pull-out of
highly drawn fibers upon failure were observed. In the latter, de-
velopment of the translaminar crack network resulted in the spread
of delamination with the simultaneous formation of transverse
cracks.
• Mainly, two types of cracks such as intra-laminate and inter-laminar
were observed in the microscopic analyses. They can be generated
by stress concentrations or due to discontinuities of the stress fields
between layers or can be present initially inside the material.
• It was found that fiber fracture is the dominating the failure me-
chanisms for all the studied specimens. The presence of the hole in
the center of specimen affects the rupture phenomenon in the spe-
cimen.
10
Composite Structures 243 (2020) 112234
CRediT authorship contribution statement
Leila Jebri: Writing - original draft. Fethi Abbassi: Supervision,
Writing - original draft, Project administration. Murat Demiral:
Writing - original draft. Mohamed Soula: Supervision, Writing - review
& editing. Furqan Ahmad: Writing - review & editing.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial
interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influ-
ence the work reported in this paper.
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