ABSTRACT
Tensile tests of quasi-isotropic [0/45/-45/90]s Carbon Fiber Reinforced Plastic (CFRP) laminate at low (-100°C), room (25°C) and high (150°C) temperatures showed that the transverse crack propagation and interlaminar delamination growth behavior are obviously affected by the temperature.
In the present paper, the three-dimensional finite element method (FEM) is applied to a quasi-isotropic CFRP laminate to investigate the interlaminar free edge stresses and ply stresses under combined thermal and mechanical loadings. The mechanical properties of a lamina (T800H/#3631) are obtained experimentally as a function of temperature and both the temperature-dependent mechanical properties and the idea of stress-free temperature are taken into account. Resulted stresses including initial residual thermal ones due to the stress-free temperature are used to discuss the above mentioned experimental results, which leads to the temperature-dependent critical properties for damages such as transverse crack and delamination.
