Resistance of Polymeric Laminates Reinforced with Fabrics against the Growth of Delaminations.

Dependence of the initiation values of the Strain Energy Release Rate, G, on the orientation of the reinforcement direction α relative to the delamination front was investigated for two laminates of different interfacial ply arrangements. In the case of the first laminate, the delamination was located at the interface of the layers reinforced with symmetric fabric and unidirectional fabric. In the case of the second laminate, the delamination was located at the interface of layers reinforced with symmetric fabric.

Mechanical Lock Joint for Effective In-Plane Application of Concentrated Loads to Thin Polymer Matrix Laminates.

Means of in-plane loading of thin laminates with concentrated loads are of high practical importance. The purpose of this work was to investigate experimentally and numerically the mechanism of load transfer, load capacity, damage and associated failure modes of a specific, mechanical lock joint intended for in-plane loading of thin laminate plates with concentrated loads. The experimental investigations were carried out with the digital image corelation (DIC) and computed tomography (CT), and numerical ones with the help of a non-linear FE modelling, accounting for progressive damage.