The Influence of Loading Direction on the Compressive Strength in Quasi-Isotropic CFRP Laminates

Abstract

For quasi-isotropic CFRP laminates, the elastic stress-strain behavior is expected to be the same in any directions. But fracture and/or strength of them may depend on the loading direction. In this paper, compressive tests are carried out for the specimens, cut out in several directions and lengths from two kinds of stacking sequence laminates, to investigate the influence of loading direction on the compressive strength. A FEM code is used to analyze the stresses in the specimens and the Tsai-Wu failure criterion is employed to predict the compressive strength of the laminates for the various loading directions and specimen lengths. The comparisons between the calculating results and experimental ones are discussed.