Experimental and numerical investigation on microstructural inhomogeneities �in UD carbon-fibre-reinforced thermoplastics

Abstract

Calculation of continuous fibre-reinforced-plastics (FRP) for aircraft and automobile applications is usually conducted by using Classical Laminate Theory (CLT), in which inhomogeneous composite plies are considered as homogeneous material. For representing the elastic behaviour of FRPs the CLT-method is well suited. However, plastic and damage behaviour particularly found in FRPs with thermoplastic matrix is affected by inhomogeneities. Thus, to improve the dimensioning of aforementioned structures identification and modelling of relevant representative regions with the inhomogeneous microstructure are essential. In this work a detailed analysis of the microstructure was conducted for building up a realistic parametric numerical model with modifiable fibre arrangement. In simulations of different relevant microstructures the elastic and plastic response of a unidirectional carbon-fibre-reinforced thermoplastic on mechanical loading was investigated. The importance of modelling microstructural details to predict elastic-plastic material behaviour was underlined by comparison of different fibre arrangements.