JOURNAL OF
International Scientific Publications:
Materials, Methods Technologies
Volume 7, Part
Peer-Reviewed Open Access Journal
Published at:
http://www.scientific-publications.net
Published by Info Invest Ltd
www.sciencebg.net
ISSN 1313-2539, 2013, Bulgaria (EU)
, Journal of International Scientific Publications:
Materials, Methods Technologies, Volume 7, Part
ISSN 1313-2539, Published at: http://www.scientific-publications.net
Editor in Chief
Moinuddin Sarker, USA
Co-Editor in Chief
Tatiana Tolstikova, Russia
Executive Secretary
Amit Chaudhry, India
Editorial Board
Alla Frolkova, Russia
Aurora Alexandrescu, Romania
Antonios Papadopoulos, Greece
Branko Marinkovi Serbia
Cenko Cenkov, Bulgaria
Guobin Liu, China
Hamid Abbasdokht, Iran
Ijaz Noorka, Pakistan
Jovan Crnobarac, Serbia
Lev Ruzer, USA
Meenu Vikram, USA
Muhammad Afzal, Pakistan
Panayot Panayotov, Bulgaria
Tatjana Barashkova, Estonia
Flaviu Figura, Romania
Vladimir Solodukhin, Kazakhstan
2 Published by Info Invest, Bulgaria, www.sciencebg.net
, Journal of International Scientific Publications:
Materials, Methods Technologies, Volume 7, Part
ISSN 1313-2539, Published at: http://www.scientific-publications.net
Published in Association with Science Education Foundation.
Any paper submitted to the journal of International Scientific Publications:
Materials, Methods Technologies should NOT be under consideration for
publication at another journal. All submitted papers must also represent original
work, and should fully reference and describe all prior work on the same subject
and compare the submitted paper to that work.
All research articles in this journal have undergone rigorous peer review, based
on initial editor screening and anonymized refereeing by at least two referees.
Recommending the articles for publishing, the reviewers confirm that in their
opinion the submitted article contains important or new scientific results.
The authors of the articles bear the responsibility for their content.
When quoting the articles their author and edition should be mentioned.
It is not allowed the edition of the scientific articles to be copied, multiplied and
distributed with the purpose of trade without the permission of the editor.
3 Published by Info Invest, Bulgaria, www.sciencebg.net
, Journal of International Scientific Publications:
Materials, Methods Technologies, Volume 7, Part
ISSN 1313-2539, Published at: http://www.scientific-publications.net
PROGRESSIVE FAILURE ANALYSIS OF HYBRID COMPOSITE
LAMINATES UNDER STATIC TENSILE LOADING
Ajit D. Kelkar, Ram Mohan, Mahdi Ghazizadeh and Evan Kimbro
Joint School of Nanoscience and Nanoengineering, North Carolina A&T State University,
2907 E. Lee Street, Greensboro, North Carolina 27401, USA
Abstract
During the past decade use of both carbon and fiberglass composites have increased in aerospace,
marine and automotive applications. One of the drawbacks of using carbon composites is that they are
strong in axial direction but weak in transverse direction and hence are susceptible to impact damage.
On the other hand fiberglass composites have excellent impact resistance, but typically less strength in
axial direction. Recently aerospace manufacturers have started using hybrid laminates, comprising of
both fiberglass and carbon materials. This paper presents the finite element modelling of the
progressive failure analysis of hybrid composite laminates. The progressive deformation and damage
mechanisms under static loading are investigated and compared with 3-D finite element progressive
failure analysis of hybrid laminates under static loading. The model predictions showed good
agreement with experimental data. The present modelling approach is computationally efficient and
provides an effective method for the design of the hybrid composites.
Key words: Finite element model, Hybrid composite, Progressive failure.
1. INTRODUCTION
During the past decade use of both carbon and fiberglass composites have increased dramatically in
aerospace, marine and automotive applications (Rice 2001, Fukushima 2009). One of the drawbacks
of using carbon composites is that they are very strong in axial direction but weak in transverse
direction and hence are susceptible to impact damage. On the other hand fiberglass composites have
excellent impact resistance, but typically less strength in axial direction (Li 2009, Chandra 1999).
Recently aerospace manufacturers have started using hybrid laminates, comprising of both fiberglass
and carbon materials (Artemenko 2008). One of the other drawbacks of use of composites is high
manufacturing cost. To overcome the high manufacturing cost, recently several manufacturers have
started using low cost vacuum assisted resin transfer molding process (VARTM) to fabricate
composite parts (Fu 2011). One of the difficulties involved with VARTM process is suitability of
epoxy resins for ambient temperature VARTM (O’Brien 2001). In particular when higher glass
transition temperatures are required (most of the aerospace components), the conventional VARTM
fails. Although it is possible to pursue a conventional VARTM inside an oven, it has limitations on the
size of the fabricated parts. An alternative H-VARTM© method, which uses a very low cost approach
to achieve the VARTM fabrication at elevated temperatures without use of an oven was employed for
the fabrication of these hybrid composites (Mall 2009). A combination of hybrid carbon and glass
fibers woven laminates in conjunction with high glass transition temperature resins demonstrates the
process. Mechanical properties of H-VARTM fabricated composite panels will be presented.
While the manufacturing can be achieved with the alternate process, the designs of stacking sequences
present significant challenges (Vanaja 2002). Computational modelling facilitates the analysis of
different stacking sequences towards developing an optimal design configuration (Pepyne 2000).
4 Published by Info Invest, Bulgaria, www.sciencebg.net
International Scientific Publications:
Materials, Methods Technologies
Volume 7, Part
Peer-Reviewed Open Access Journal
Published at:
http://www.scientific-publications.net
Published by Info Invest Ltd
www.sciencebg.net
ISSN 1313-2539, 2013, Bulgaria (EU)
, Journal of International Scientific Publications:
Materials, Methods Technologies, Volume 7, Part
ISSN 1313-2539, Published at: http://www.scientific-publications.net
Editor in Chief
Moinuddin Sarker, USA
Co-Editor in Chief
Tatiana Tolstikova, Russia
Executive Secretary
Amit Chaudhry, India
Editorial Board
Alla Frolkova, Russia
Aurora Alexandrescu, Romania
Antonios Papadopoulos, Greece
Branko Marinkovi Serbia
Cenko Cenkov, Bulgaria
Guobin Liu, China
Hamid Abbasdokht, Iran
Ijaz Noorka, Pakistan
Jovan Crnobarac, Serbia
Lev Ruzer, USA
Meenu Vikram, USA
Muhammad Afzal, Pakistan
Panayot Panayotov, Bulgaria
Tatjana Barashkova, Estonia
Flaviu Figura, Romania
Vladimir Solodukhin, Kazakhstan
2 Published by Info Invest, Bulgaria, www.sciencebg.net
, Journal of International Scientific Publications:
Materials, Methods Technologies, Volume 7, Part
ISSN 1313-2539, Published at: http://www.scientific-publications.net
Published in Association with Science Education Foundation.
Any paper submitted to the journal of International Scientific Publications:
Materials, Methods Technologies should NOT be under consideration for
publication at another journal. All submitted papers must also represent original
work, and should fully reference and describe all prior work on the same subject
and compare the submitted paper to that work.
All research articles in this journal have undergone rigorous peer review, based
on initial editor screening and anonymized refereeing by at least two referees.
Recommending the articles for publishing, the reviewers confirm that in their
opinion the submitted article contains important or new scientific results.
The authors of the articles bear the responsibility for their content.
When quoting the articles their author and edition should be mentioned.
It is not allowed the edition of the scientific articles to be copied, multiplied and
distributed with the purpose of trade without the permission of the editor.
3 Published by Info Invest, Bulgaria, www.sciencebg.net
, Journal of International Scientific Publications:
Materials, Methods Technologies, Volume 7, Part
ISSN 1313-2539, Published at: http://www.scientific-publications.net
PROGRESSIVE FAILURE ANALYSIS OF HYBRID COMPOSITE
LAMINATES UNDER STATIC TENSILE LOADING
Ajit D. Kelkar, Ram Mohan, Mahdi Ghazizadeh and Evan Kimbro
Joint School of Nanoscience and Nanoengineering, North Carolina A&T State University,
2907 E. Lee Street, Greensboro, North Carolina 27401, USA
Abstract
During the past decade use of both carbon and fiberglass composites have increased in aerospace,
marine and automotive applications. One of the drawbacks of using carbon composites is that they are
strong in axial direction but weak in transverse direction and hence are susceptible to impact damage.
On the other hand fiberglass composites have excellent impact resistance, but typically less strength in
axial direction. Recently aerospace manufacturers have started using hybrid laminates, comprising of
both fiberglass and carbon materials. This paper presents the finite element modelling of the
progressive failure analysis of hybrid composite laminates. The progressive deformation and damage
mechanisms under static loading are investigated and compared with 3-D finite element progressive
failure analysis of hybrid laminates under static loading. The model predictions showed good
agreement with experimental data. The present modelling approach is computationally efficient and
provides an effective method for the design of the hybrid composites.
Key words: Finite element model, Hybrid composite, Progressive failure.
1. INTRODUCTION
During the past decade use of both carbon and fiberglass composites have increased dramatically in
aerospace, marine and automotive applications (Rice 2001, Fukushima 2009). One of the drawbacks
of using carbon composites is that they are very strong in axial direction but weak in transverse
direction and hence are susceptible to impact damage. On the other hand fiberglass composites have
excellent impact resistance, but typically less strength in axial direction (Li 2009, Chandra 1999).
Recently aerospace manufacturers have started using hybrid laminates, comprising of both fiberglass
and carbon materials (Artemenko 2008). One of the other drawbacks of use of composites is high
manufacturing cost. To overcome the high manufacturing cost, recently several manufacturers have
started using low cost vacuum assisted resin transfer molding process (VARTM) to fabricate
composite parts (Fu 2011). One of the difficulties involved with VARTM process is suitability of
epoxy resins for ambient temperature VARTM (O’Brien 2001). In particular when higher glass
transition temperatures are required (most of the aerospace components), the conventional VARTM
fails. Although it is possible to pursue a conventional VARTM inside an oven, it has limitations on the
size of the fabricated parts. An alternative H-VARTM© method, which uses a very low cost approach
to achieve the VARTM fabrication at elevated temperatures without use of an oven was employed for
the fabrication of these hybrid composites (Mall 2009). A combination of hybrid carbon and glass
fibers woven laminates in conjunction with high glass transition temperature resins demonstrates the
process. Mechanical properties of H-VARTM fabricated composite panels will be presented.
While the manufacturing can be achieved with the alternate process, the designs of stacking sequences
present significant challenges (Vanaja 2002). Computational modelling facilitates the analysis of
different stacking sequences towards developing an optimal design configuration (Pepyne 2000).
4 Published by Info Invest, Bulgaria, www.sciencebg.net
