A modified Arcan test to analyze the behavior of composites and their assemblies under out-of-plane loadings

Type Article
Date 2011-01
Language English
Author(s) Cognard J. Y.1, Sohier L.2, Davies PeterORCID3
Affiliation(s) 1 : ENSIETA, Brest Lab Mech & Syst, F-29806 Brest 09, France.
2 : UBO, Brest Lab Mech & Syst, F-29285 Brest, France.
3 : IFREMER, Ctr Brest, Mat & Struct Grp, F-29280 Plouzane, France.
Source Composites Part A-applied Science And Manufacturing (1359-835X) (Elsevier Sci Ltd), 2011-01 , Vol. 42 , N. 1 , P. 111-121
DOI 10.1016/j.compositesa.2010.10.012
WOS© Times Cited 43
Keyword(s) Laminates, Adhesion, Stress concentrations, Mechanical testing
Abstract Composite materials are a key element in weight reduction strategies, so the analysis of the mechanical behavior of assemblies of composite modules is of great importance. Failure initiation in bonded assemblies involving composites is often associated with crack initiation in the adhesive or delamination of the composite plies close to the adhesive joint, caused by interlaminar or through-thickness stresses. Thus, the analysis of the behavior of composites and their assemblies under out-of-plane loadings is necessary in order to optimize such structures. However, few experimental devices are proposed in the literature and they often require thick composite specimens which are not representative of most industrial applications. This paper describes the use of a modified Arcan test to determine the behavior of composites and hybrid bonded assemblies over a wide range of tensile-shear out-of-plane loadings. The key advantages of this fixture are the testing of thin composite plates and the use of an adhesive to fix samples. Moreover, an optimization of the design of the proposed device, based on finite element simulations, significantly limits the influence of edge effects in order to obtain accurate experimental results. Some test results are presented which underline the potential of the proposed approach. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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