Micro-mechanical modelling of shear-driven fibre compressive failure and of fibre kinking for failure envelope generation in CFRP laminates

A micro-mechanical Finite Element (FE) model is used to investigate the failure mechanisms and generate failure envelopes for fibre reinforced composites under combined in-plane shear and longitudinal compressive loading. The results show that the failure envelopes are defined by two regions corresponding to different failure mechanisms: (i) shear-driven fibre compressive failure and (ii) kinking/splitting. The FE model is also used to reproduce and give insight into different experimental trends typically reported in the literature. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.