Microbuckle tunnelling in fibre composites (Q1577368)

The authors study the propagation of compressive failure in multi-dimensional composite laminates. First, they describe in detail the misalignment of fibers, microbuckling and its tunnelling, and collapses appearing in long fiber composites, such as carbon fibers in an epoxy matrix. Many works are references. Then a model is constructed to treat the two- and three-dimensional tunnelling of a microbuckle in axial plies of multidirectional laminates. The analysis is advanced for isotropic, orthotropic (unidirectional laminates) and orthotropic (cross-ply laminate) solids. The tunnelling stress and the delamination crack length are obtained as functions of the ratio of delamination to microbuckle toughness, and of the inclination of microbuckle band. The authors assert that the tunnelling stress provides a useful lower bound on compressive strength of a thick laminated structure.