Through-Thickness Mechanical Characterization of Woven Fabric Composites

Abstract

The objective of this study was to investigate the interlaminar orthrough-thickness deformation and failure of woven fabric composites subjected toquasi-static loading and develop testing methods and specimens that would provideboth elastic properties and strengths for moderately thick composites. This study wasperformed on a thick composite consisting of a satin weave carbon fabricimpregnated with an amine-cured epoxy resin. All through-thickness mechanicalproperties under compressive, tensile, and shear loading with their correspondingfailure mechanisms were determined. These properties were also correlated with thecorresponding ones for a unidirectional composite having the same fiber and matrix.