On the Damage Evolution and the Mechanical Degradation of Glass‐Fibre Non‐Crimp Fabric Reinforced Epoxy Under Tensile Loading: Experimental and Finite Element Modelling

Abstract

The stiffness and damage evolution in a quasi‐static tensile loaded non‐crimp fabric reinforced epoxy was measured. To determine the effective stiffness of the damaged material numerically a finite element analysis was performed. The finite element analysis bases solely on the measured ±45° and 90°‐ crack densities and on ply properties calculated by the Rule of Mixtures. The measured and calculated effective tensile stiffness were compared and a fair agreement could be found.