A Three-Dimensional Finite Element Stress Analysis of Plain-Woven CFRP Adhesive Laminated Plates and Hollow Cylinder Under Out-of-Plane Loading

Carbon-Fiber-Reinforced-Plastic (CFRP) laminates have been used extensively in many industrial applications because of their good mechanical properties, such as high specific strength and elastic modulus. However, when CFRP laminated plate is bent, cracks and delaminations occur at the interfaces where fiber orientations are changed. Therefore, it is important to know the stress distributions at the interfaces. In this study, the stress distributions of plain-woven CFRP adhesive laminated plates and hollow cylinder bonded reinforcements under out-of-plane loads are examined. Stress distributions in the CFRP laminated plates are analyzed using three-dimensional Finite Element Method. The effects of the thickness, stiffness and length of coating reinforcements are examined in the numerical calculations. The three point bending tests were carried out for the verifications of the FEM calculations. The strains at the interfaces, the deflection and the delaminations stress were measured under static out-of-plane loading. A fairly good agreement was seen between the FEM calculations and the experimental results concerning the strains and the deflections. Moreover, the mechanism of delaminations is examined using the interface stress distributions in the CFRP laminated plates.