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Measurement and modelling of interlaminar shear strength enhancement

under moderate through-thickness compression

Article  in  Composites Part A Applied Science and Manufacturing · June 2013

DOI: 10.1016/j.compositesa.2013.02.004

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 Published in Composites Part A, 49, 2013, pp 18-25
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compositesa.2013.02.004

Measurement and Modelling of Interlaminar Shear Strength

Enhancement under Moderate Through-Thickness Compression

Khong Wui Gan, Stephen R. Hallett*, Michael R. Wisnom

Advanced Composites Centre for Innovation and Science, University of Bristol, University Walk,

Bristol, BS8 1TR, United Kingdom.

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +44 (0)117 33 15313. E-mail address: stephen.hallett@bristol.ac.uk.

Abstract

Interaction between compressive through-thickness stress and out-of-plane shear can

enhance the shear stress at which delaminations initiate in composite materials and

components. In complex loading situations this may become significant, either resulting

in an under prediction of strength if it is not taken into account or even a failure to

predict the correct failure mode. This effect is investigated experimentally, analytically

and numerically in this work. A symmetric version of the double-notch shear test is

proposed for direct measurement of the interlaminar shear strength under moderate

through-thickness compression. The test has successfully measured shear strength

enhancement under increasing through-thickness compression. A range of failure

criteria presented in the literature has been compared to the results obtained. Finally the

tests have been modelled using finite element analysis. User defined interface elements

which take account of the effect of compression enhancement allow the experimental

results to be accurately predicted.

Keywords: A. Polymer-matrix composites (PMCs); B. Compression enhanced

interfacial strength; C. Finite element analysis (FEA)

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1. Introduction

With the increasing use of composite materials for advanced structural and load bearing

applications (e.g. aircraft primary structure), the complexity of the load conditions that

can exist is also increasing. Transverse or through-thickness compressive loadings can

have a major effect on the laminate behaviour and strength and can arise from contact

stresses as found in bolted joints or hydrostatic stresses in underwater structures. While

tensile interlaminar normal stresses in general have a detrimental effect on delamination

failure in composites, experimental evidence has shown that compressive interlaminar

normal stresses have a beneficial effect on the interlaminar shear strength.

Collings [1] reported an increase in shear strength with normal compressive stress for

Morganite’s high modulus G70 and high strength HC91 carbon fibre reinforced epoxy.

McManamy et al. [2] showed an increase in interlaminar shear strength with

compression for small samples of 2D woven S-glass in bismaleimide resin using a

biaxial test. DeTeresa et al. [3] also studied the effect of through-thickness compression

on interlaminar response for five different glass and carbon fibre reinforced composites

using hollow cylindrical specimens loaded with combined torsion and a predetermined

compressive force. Their results showed that shear strength and ductility increased with

compression up to stress levels approaching the through-thickness compression

strength. However, it was indistinguishable if the shear failure was due to longitudinal,

transverse, or a combination of these two shear stresses.

Suzuki et al. [4] looked at the combination of shear and compressive strength of glass

fibre reinforced plastics used in a superconducting magnet insulator at low temperature

(77 K) using the two different “parallel” and “series” test fixtures. The fixture angle,

which determined the ratio of shear to compressive load on the specimens, was fixed

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and fixtures of different angles were therefore needed to generate sufficient data points

for the failure envelope. Koerber et al [5] used a similar approach but varied the fibre

angle instead of the fixture and performed off-axis end-loading compression tests on

Hexcel IM7/8552 carbon-epoxy prepreg with fibre orientation angles θ = 15°, 30°, 45°,

60°, 75° and 90°. An increase of 40% was observed for in-plane shear strength for

combined transverse compression and in-plane shear loading. However no tests for pure

interlaminar shear strength measurement were performed. Hine et al. [6] have also

shown an increase in interlaminar shear strength for UD glass-epoxy under hydrostatic

pressures using 10° off-axis tensile tests.

Some limitations of the experimental tests mentioned above and the lack of test results

specifically looking at interlaminar shear prompt the need for a new test that can

quantify the influence of through-thickness compression on the interlaminar shear

strength effectively. A good test method should ensure that the interlaminar shear

failure can always be obtained easily. The test fixture should be simple and flexible

enough to offer a wide range of load cases for developing the failure envelope. In the

work presented here a symmetric version of the double notch shear (DNS) (ASTM

D3846 [7]) test has been developed. It is relatively easy to modify and test in a biaxial

test rig to allow high through-thickness compressive loads compared to the complexities

that would be required to modify other standard interlaminar shear tests proposed by the

American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) such as the short beam shear test

(ASTM D2344 [8]) and Iosipescu shear test (ASTM D5379 [9]).

On the numerical modelling side, interlaminar failure in composites is commonly

addressed using interface (or cohesive) elements placed along the crack path. Such

elements make use of stress-based initiation criteria for determining the onset of

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delamination and fracture energy-based criteria for the delamination propagation. While

many well-established interface elements in the literature are able to predict Mode I,

Mode II or mixed mode delamination accurately, not much attention is given to the

Mode II behaviour of cohesive elements when they are under through-thickness

compression. Since the presence of through-thickness compression is benign to

interlaminar Mode II failure, its effect is usually ignored and the problem is considered

to be pure Mode II, thus resulting in conservative design. However for efficient design

and possibly structural weight reduction, it is important to be able to characterise these

properties correctly and to have an accurate numerical model to predict the onset of

failure. Also ignoring this effect can lead to premature delamination initiation and

prediction of incorrect failure modes.

Hou et al. [10] considered the influences of fibre failure and matrix cracking on

delamination as well as that of out-of-plane stresses in their low-velocity impact model

for a cross-ply laminate. Li et al. [11] developed an interfacial failure model (hereafter

referred to as the Bristol interface element) with modified failure initiation and

propagation criteria which accounts for the through-thickness compression effect. By

comparing the results between experiments and FE models of cut-ply and dropped-ply

glass-epoxy specimens, it was found that the increases in Mode II shear strength and

fracture energy could be related by an enhancement parameter ηf, analogous to an

internal friction coefficient:

𝑆"#$%&_( = 𝑆"#$%& − 𝜂, 𝜎.. (1)

𝐺001_( = 𝐺001 21 − 42𝜂, ⁄𝑆"#$%& 7𝜎.. + 𝜂,9 (𝜎.. /𝑆"#$%& )9 = (2)

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Sshear and GIIc are the pure Mode II maximum shear stress and critical fracture energy

respectively in a typical bilinear interface element formulation, while Sshear_n and GIIc_n

are the enhanced values under the influence of through-thickness compressive stress,

σ33. Good correlation was achieved with ηf = 0.74 for glass-epoxy composites. A value

of ηf = 0.65 was proposed for carbon-epoxy. The symmetric DNS test presented here

has been modelled using the Bristol interface elements which have been implemented in

Abaqus/Explicit as user elements [12]. This was to validate Equation (1) in particular

since the test is a strength dominated case (as will be shown in Section 4).

Besides Equation (1), there are a range of possible damage initiation criteria that can be

used. This experimental study also aims to determine which failure criterion is the best

to use for damage initiation for IM7/8552. Christensen and DeTeresa [13] developed an

out-of-plane delamination criterion accounting for the strengthening effect of through-

thickness compression on interlaminar shear strength,

>?? B C> B
>A? B?
@
+ DB
=1 (3)

where T = transverse tensile strength, S = pure interlaminar shear strength. T is

estimated as the in-plane transverse tensile strength of a unidirectional (UD) lamina. S is

measured in the experiment for a particular laminate and no distinction was made if it is

the longitudinal or the transverse interlaminar shear strength. σ are the stresses with the

conventional index notation for composites.

Failure due to delamination is dominantly governed by the matrix strength properties. A

failure criterion based on the principal transverse tensile strain has been presented by

Daniel et al. [14, 15] (Northwestern University NU theory), which gave very good

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agreement with experimental results for interlaminar shear dominated failure in textile

composites involving interlaminar shear and through-thickness compression,

9GA?
𝜎E. = 𝑆E. F1 − H 𝜎.. (4)
? DA?

where S13 is the pure interlaminar shear strength. G13 and E3 are the out-of-plane shear

and elastic moduli respectively. A similar variant of the failure criterion can also be

derived based on the ultimate principal tensile stress or principal tensile strain energy

[16].

Puck and Schurmann [17, 18] introduced a phenomenological failure criterion for inter-

fibre fracture (IFF) at UD ply level under biaxial in-plane loading. In particular for

Mode B fracture in which the normal compressive σ33 impedes fracture due to shear σ13

on the fracture plane where the fracture angle θfp = 0°, the fracture condition in the 1-3

plane is written as

> 9 K
IDA? J + 2 ID J 𝜎.. = 1 ; 𝜎.. < 0 (5)
A? A?

where p is the experimental slope of the (σ33, σ13) fracture envelope for σ33 ≤ 0 at σ33 =

0.

Some works [16, 19, 20] have shown that composite materials that fail by transverse

compressive failure follow the Mohr-Coulomb yield criterion reasonably well. The

Mohr-Coulomb criterion postulates that the shear failure stress on the fracture plane is

equal to the sum of a cohesive strength plus an analogous ‘internal friction’ resistance,

which is a product of an internal friction coefficient and the normal stress,

𝜏E. = 𝑆E. + 𝜂𝜎.. (6)

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E
𝜂 = − QRS 9T (7)
U

where η is the influence rate of the normal stresses acting perpendicular to the fracture

plane and αo is the fracture plane angle . Equation (6) is similar in form to Equation (1).

Puck [17] determined that most unidirectional graphite-epoxy composites fail by

transverse shear along a fracture plane oriented at αo = 53±2°. The parameter η that

controls this angle can also be obtained through additional testing. Puck [17] however

differentiated the coefficients of influence ηT and ηL for transverse shear ST and

longitudinal shear SL respectively. ηT can be determined from a uniaxial transverse

compression test using Equation (7), while the ηL can be determined from shear tests

with varying degrees of transverse compression. In the absence of biaxial test data, ηL

can be estimated from the longitudinal and transverse shear strengths and the transverse

compressive strength Yc [21]:

VW V DW [\] 9TU
DW
= DX ⟹ 𝜂Z = − ^_ [\]B TU
(8)
X

In the following, the effect of through-thickness compression on interlaminar shear

strength will be investigated experimentally and compared against the available failure

theories. The Bristol interface elements will be used in numerical models for failure

prediction, taking into account the influence of through-thickness stresses on the

interlaminar shear behaviour.

2. Experimental

2.1 Specimen preparation and rig setup

The material under consideration is Hexcel’s carbon epoxy pre-preg system, IM7/8552

with a nominal ply thickness of 0.125 mm. Two laminated panels of stacking sequence

[(0/90)5/03/(90/0)5] (named Laminate A hereafter) were fabricated. The 0° direction

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refers to the longitudinal tensile loading direction. The 90° plies were present to prevent

the specimens from splitting transversely due to the high through-thickness compressive

loading. The interlaminar shear failure was designed to take place within the 3 plies of

0° at the mid-plane of the laminate. The laminates were cured according to the

manufacturer’s specification.

Figure 1. Symmetric double-notch shear (SDNS) specimen dimensions (side and

top view). The 5.95 mm thickness shown is for specimens made from Laminate A.
Those from Laminate B are about 6.40 mm thick.

Two centrally located notches were then machined halfway through the thickness of

each laminate on opposing faces, separated by a nominal distance of 6.5 mm, with the

final configuration exactly the same as a conventional DNS specimen [7]. The

rectangular notches were about 1.5 mm in width and machined at 0.2 mm increments in

depth down to the mid- thickness at a milling speed of 1000 rpm. The two laminates

were then glued back to back using Hexcel Redux 810 adhesive and cured at 70 °C for

one hour to form a symmetrical double-notched panel. In order to avoid damage due to

mechanical gripping, end tabs 100 mm long, made of glass/epoxy, were glued to both

ends of the panel, leaving a 100 mm-long untabbed section. Specimens of 10 mm width

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were cut from the panel using a water-cooled diamond wheel cutter. The nominal

dimensions of the specimens are shown in Figure 1.

Initial tests showed that Laminate A specimens failed by fibre failure at the thin region

over the central notch for through-thickness compressive loads above 20 kN. A second

stacking sequence [(0/90/0)4/0/(0/90/0)4] (named Laminate B hereafter) with a higher

percentage of 0° plies was then used in order to try to extend the failure envelope to

higher through-thickness compression levels. The manufacturing procedure was

repeated as above.

The tests were performed using a Zwick/Roell 100 kN tension/compression biaxial

testing machine, equipped with four independent hydraulic grips mounted horizontally

on a flat steel base. One pair of actuators was in the longitudinal direction while the

other pair was in the perpendicular through-thickness direction. Both the displacement

and load could be monitored independently for all four actuators. Since the longitudinal

actuators could not be brought very close together due to the presence of the transverse

actuators, custom made fixtures and jaws were manufactured from EN24 high tensile

steel to hold the specimens (Figure 2). For gripping and applying the tensile load on the

specimens, two pairs of clamps were built with corrugated surfaces to enhance friction.

Four M8 high tensile bolts were used for tightening each clamp at 40 Nm of torque. The

clamps were each connected to the hydraulic grips on the longitudinal actuators with a

steel extension rod via an M20 bolt.

Through-thickness load was applied via a pair of heat-treated steel (BS4659 B01)

indenters with a prismatic profile (Figure 1) made up of a 7 × 50 mm flat surface and a

curved surface of 100 mm radius. The flat surface served to generate uniform through-

thickness compressive stresses across the gauge section while the curved surface allows

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gradual reduction of compressive stresses, reducing any stress concentration. A spirit

level was used to ensure good horizontal alignment of all the extension rods and the

indenters. A high speed camera was set up from the top (Figure 2) to capture the instant

of failure at 216,000 fps.

Steel
Longitudinal High speed M20 bolt indenters
actuators camera

Transverse
actuators

Gripping
fixtures

Figure 2. Biaxial test rig setup; (left) overview of actuator positioning,

(right) details of test configuration.

2.2 Test procedure

Before testing, all the specimens were measured in the width direction and also

inspected under a microscope for accurate gauge length measurements and notch

quality. A thin adhesive layer of Redux 810 can be seen in the mid-plane of the

specimen in Figure 3.

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Adhesive

layer

Figure 3. Micrograph of notch quality of a specimen.

After the specimen was clamped in position, one of the transverse indenters was

brought in until it barely touched the specimen and was locked in position. The other

indenter was then set in load control and applied the through-thickness compressive

load on the specimen at 1 kN/s. Any possible bending effect due to this asymmetric

loading arrangement is minimised by having the two M20 bolts (Figure 2b) that allow a

slight transverse movement and by having a long specimen. After the compressive load

stabilised, one of the longitudinal actuators (the one on the right in Figure 2b) was

loaded under displacement control at a nominal rate of 1 mm/min while the other one

was fixed. Unlike a conventional DNS specimen, the specimen was tested in tension

since, if it were to be loaded in compression, the specimen would be susceptible to

buckling without the supporting jigs to eliminate the out-of-plane deformation. The

specimen was loaded until catastrophic failure.

Failure of the specimen occurred in shear on the horizontal plane between the notch tips

of each laminate. There were two shear failure planes for each specimen. The

interlaminar shear strength, S13, is simply calculated as the maximum shear load carried

by the specimen during the test, Fmax, divided by the total failed area A, as suggested by

ASTM D3846 [7]:

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`abc
𝑆E. = (9)
d

The specimens of Laminate A and B were tested at various through-thickness

compressive loads from 10 kN up to 40 kN. The conventional DNS specimen is tested

in longitudinal compression since longitudinal tensile loading (in the absence of

transverse compression) gives combined through-thickness tensile and shear stresses at

the notch tips, i.e. mixed mode loading instead of the desired pure shear. This is still the

case for the symmetrical specimen tested in tension (without transverse compressive

load) but the through-thickness tensile component is reduced due to the symmetry.

Finite element analysis (see Section 4) showed that at compressive loads of 10 kN and

above the Mode I component at the notch tip was sufficiently suppressed to be able to

consider it a pure Mode II shear failure.

3. Results and Discussion

During the tests, it was found that delamination would first initiate from the external

notches, outside the gauge section at a longitudinal tensile load of about 10 kN, before

the final shear failure in the gauge section (see Figure 4). The load-displacement curve

shows that the load corresponding to the delamination onset is well below the shear

failure load. The sudden dynamic movement when delamination initiated was unlikely

to affect the final failure load. The final shear failure at the gauge section was

instantaneous and catastrophic for all specimens. The high speed camera at 216,000 fps

could not capture any separate crack initiation or propagation before full failure of the

gauge section.

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Final shear
failure

Delamination
onset

Figure 4. An experimental load-displacement curve of a specimen of Laminate A at

10 kN through-thickness compression. (Inset) Delamination next to gauge section
at ~10 kN tensile load.

Figure 5. SDNS specimen at 30 kN showing fibre failure.

The specimens of Laminate A were tested at 10 kN, 15 kN, 17.5 kN, 20 kN, 30 kN and

40 kN through-thickness compressive loads. The specimens failed in fibre failure at 30

kN and above (Figure 5). Laminate B had a higher percentage of 0° plies to sustain the

tensile load and try to extend the failure envelope to higher through-thickness

compression. For repeatability, specimens of Laminate B were tested at 10 kN, 15 kN,

20 kN, 25 kN, 30 kN and 35 kN. The specimens however failed in the same fibre failure

mode at 30 kN through-thickness compression load case and above.

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At high through-thickness compressive load the contact area extended over the central

notch and beyond the gauge area. As a result the average through-thickness stress

cannot be calculated simply as compressive load divided by the gauge area. The average

through-thickness compressive stress along the gauge length was therefore obtained

from finite element analysis for each load case. The test results are shown in Table 1

and presented graphically in Figure 6 as a failure envelope.

Table 1. Experimental results of SDNS tests.

Through-Thickness (TT) Compressive Load, kN
10 15 17.5 20 25 30 40

Ave. Interlaminar Shear 120 141 161 159 Fibre Fibre

-
Laminate A

Strength, MPa (CV, %) (3.27) (1.08) (-) (3.45) failure* failure*

Ave. TT Compressive
134 193 226 249 - 354 452
Stress, MPa
No. specimens 4 2 1 4
Ave. Interlaminar Shear 123 141 165 171 Fibre Fibre
-
Laminate B

Strength, MPa (CV, %) (8.32) (4.68) (2.83) (2.75) failure* failure*

Ave. TT Compressive
137 197 - 254 308 360 410
Stress, MPa
No. specimens 2 4 4 7
* Specimens failed by fibre failure before interlaminar shear failure.

The DNS specimen is well known for its difficulty to control the notch depth [22-24].

Some notches of the specimens were found to be either undercut or overcut. While a

slightly overcut specimen in principle should not be a major issue, an undercut

specimen would have to fail by fibre fracture since there are bridging fibres across the

shear plane. It could thus give a spurious shear strength, higher than an ideal or undercut

specimen, thus causing larger scatter in the experimental data. Specimens with

significant fibre failure visible on the fracture surface were therefore discarded, leaving

some of the load cases with only one or two valid specimens.

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Figure 6. Comparison of predicted and observed failure envelope for IM7/8552

under combined interlaminar shear and through-thickness compressive stresses.

May and Hallett [25] measured the pure interlaminar shear strength of IM7/8552

carbon/epoxy unidirectional laminates to be 82.5 MPa in conventional DNS tests. The

value is plotted in Figure 6 as a reference and is in excellent agreement with the

extrapolated pure interlaminar shear strength of 82.6 MPa from the experimental data

using a least-square linear fit. This trend line has a slope of -0.30 which corresponds to

the value of η = 0.30 in Equation (1). The failure envelopes predicted by a range of

criteria for combined stresses of interlaminar shear and compression are shown in

Figure 6 together with the experimental data. All failure theories account for the trend

of increasing shear strength with through-thickness compression and agree quite well

with the experimental results. It should be noted that no curve fitting parameter is

needed for the Christensen delamination criterion [13] and the NU theory [14] as they

are all expressed in terms of uniaxial strength properties. The input data in Table 2 are

used in applying the failure criteria.

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Table 2. IM7/8552 unidirectional material properties used for failure prediction.

Transverse tensile strength, T 111 MPa [26]

Transverse compressive strength, Yc 185 MPa [27]
Pure interlaminar shear strength, S or S13 82.5 MPa [25]
Through-thickness modulus, E33 11.38 GPa [28]
Longitudinal shear modulus, G13 5.17 GPa [28]

The Mohr-Coulomb theory and the Puck’s Mode B inter-fibre fracture (IFF) criterion

however need an additional parameter η, which is physically the rate of influence of

through-thickness compression on interlaminar shear strength. This has to be

determined from biaxial testing. A linear fit of the experimental data gives η = 0.30. If

this value is back substituted into Equation (7), it predicts that IM7/8552 will fail in

transverse compression at the fracture angle αo = 53.35°, which is very close to the αo =

53° suggested by Puck [17]. In Figure 6, the Mohr-Coulomb criterion is plotted using

Equation (7) with αo = 53°, giving the slope η = 0.287. Another estimation of η using

Equation (8) together with αo = 53° gives the longitudinal shear enhancement

coefficient ηL = 0.339. Koerber et al. [5] reported η = 0.2686 in their quasi-static off-

axis compression test using linear curve-fitting for the same material.

It should be noted that Puck’s Mode B IFF criterion reduces to Mohr-Coulomb criterion

when the through-thickness compressive stress is small. Of the many criteria, the NU

theory is preferred since it is described purely by material properties without additional

parameter and it agrees well with the experimental data. On the other hand, Puck’s

Mode B inter-fibre fracture (IFF) criterion together with Equation (8) and αo = 53°

produces a conservative failure prediction. Unless additional testing is carried out, the

value αo = 53° has to be used with caution as the value could be material dependent.

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4. Numerical

4.1 Finite element model

The symmetric DNS test was modelled quasi-statically in Abaqus/Explicit using the

measured enhancement coefficient in a user defined cohesive interface element [11]. An

explicit analysis was used to overcome the convergence difficulty associated with an

implicit analysis. Due to geometrical symmetry, a 3D slice of one half of the test

specimen was analysed. Eight-node solid C3D8 elements were used, with one element

across the slice thickness of 0.1 mm. The interface elements were placed along the shear

fracture plane in the gauge region and along the delamination site outside the gauge

region (Figure 7). A penalty-based frictionless surface-to-surface contact was used to

model the interaction of the specimen with the steel indenters. The full untabbed 100

mm length of the specimen was modelled. Finer elements, 0.0375 mm long, were

concentrated in areas around the notches with coarser elements further away.

Generalized plane strain boundary conditions were imposed, representing a constant

transverse displacement throughout in the width direction.

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Figure 7. FE model (Laminate A) with the load and displacement boundary

conditions.

The through-thickness load was first applied by the steel indenter, followed by

prescribed displacement at the specimen end until failure. The full finite element model

with load and displacement boundary conditions is shown in Figure 7. Thermal residual

stresses were not considered in this work. The steel indenter was modelled with

isotropic material properties: E = 200 GPa and ν = 0.3. Material properties for

IM7/8552 unidirectional ply and laminates are given in Table 3. The sublaminate

(0/90)5 in Laminate A [(0/90)5/03/(90/0)5] could be modelled with equivalent

homogenised material properties without affecting the stress distribution in the shear

fracture plane. A similar simplification was also performed on the upper and lower

(0/90/0)3 sublaminates in Laminate B [(0/90/0)4/0/(0/90/0)4].

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Table 3. Material properties for IM7/8552 UD ply and laminates and cohesive
elements used in the FE model.
IM7/8552 ply properties (1=fibre direction) [28]
E11 E22=E33 G12=G13 G23 n12=n13 n23
161 GPa 11.4 GPa 5.17 GPa 3.98 GPa 0.32 0.435
IM7/8552 (0/90) properties (x=longitudinal direction, z=through-thickness direction)
Exx=Eyy Ezz Gxy Gxz=Gyz nxy nxz=nyz
86.65 GPa 13.44 GPa 5.17 GPa 4.50 GPa 0.042 0.435
IM7/8552 (0/90/0) properties (x=longitudinal direction, z=through-thickness direction)
Exx Eyy Ezz Gxy Gxz Gyz nxy nxz nyz
111.72 GPa 61.58 GPa 13.37 GPa 5.17 GPa 4.7 GPa 4.31 GPa 0.059 0.431 0.437
Cohesive element properties (I=Mode I)
G1c GIIc = GIIIc σImax σIImax = σIIImax EI EII=EIII η
0.2 N/mm 1.0 N/mm 60 MPa 82.6 MPa* 4.67e5 N/mm3 1.67e5 N/mm3 0.30*
* As determined from the symmetric DNS tests.

The user-written zero-thickness interface elements were written in VUEL subroutines

with standard properties given in Table 3 and enhanced Mode II properties when under

through-thickness compressive stresses [12]. The elements can transfer only through-

thickness direct stress S33 and interlaminar shear stresses S23 and S31.. They consist of a

quadratic damage initiation criterion with linear softening and a power law fracture

criterion involving Mode I and Mode II critical strain energy release rates. The power

law coefficient was assumed to be 1. The enhanced Mode II strength σII’ max was

activated only when σ33 < 0, defined by

𝜎00ef%g = 𝜎00f%g − 𝜂𝜎.. (10)

where σ33 is the through-thickness stress, σIImax is the pure Mode II cohesive strength in

the absence of through-thickness stresses, and η is the enhancement factor equal to 0.3

as measured from the symmetric DNS tests. The model assumed that the initial cohesive

stiffness and the linear softening slope remained unchanged in the enhancement process.

The effective critical mode-II strain energy release rate was given by

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9
e >iabc
𝐺001 = I >hhabc J 𝐺001 (11)
hh

The Mode II constitutive behaviour of the user cohesive elements is illustrated in Figure

8.

Figure 8. Constitutive behaviour of standard interface elements and with enhanced

Mode II properties [11].
Mass scaling and an increased loading rate (about 100 times more than the experimental

one) were applied in order to have a reasonable computational time. The mass scaling

was specified in the models such all elements had a stable time increment not smaller

than 2×10-7 s. The kinetic energy was checked to ensure the dynamic effect was

negligible ( less than 1.5% with respect to the internal energy) and models were thus

insensitive to the rate of loading.

4.2 Numerical results

Results for the symmetric DNS models using the standard and enhanced user interface

elements are presented in Figure 9 (Laminate A) and Figure 10 (Laminate B) for two

load cases. Typical experimental results are shown as a function of crosshead

displacement which includes the deformation of the specimen as well as the compliance

of the extension rods and the machine. There was also a small amount of slippage

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between the grips and the specimen, mainly in the early stage of loading. The slippage

later in the test was negligible as the experimental load-displacement curve maintained

its linearity. Even though the shear response of IM7/8552 itself is highly nonlinear, the

linearity of the experimental response was due to the fact that the gauge length in shear

was just a small portion of the total length of the specimen and the extension rods. The

degree of slippage was not a major concern since the purpose of the tests was to record

the maximum load (or stress) at which the specimen failed by shear. The load read by

the load cell was independent of the amount of slippage. Numerical displacements from

the FE analyses were scaled to match the experimental initial elastic slope. The load-

displacement curves are offset horizontally for clarity.

Figure 9. Experimental and FE load-displacement curves for specimens of

Laminate A at 10 kN (left) and 20 kN (right) through-thickness compression.

Figure. 10. Experimental and FE load-displacement curves for specimens of

Laminate B at 10 kN (left) and 20 kN (right) through-thickness compression.

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It is seen that numerical and experimental results agree well in each case with the use of

the enhanced user interface elements. The FE models were also able to predict the

delamination onset next to the gauge section at about 10 kN longitudinal tensile load.

Without shear enhancement capability, the FE models significantly underestimate the

failure load and fail at approximately the same load as the external delamination.

In all load cases, the FE results also show that the final failure happens catastrophically

in shear. They agree well with experimental observations via a high-speed camera

which showed that there was not any stable propagation. Therefore the symmetric DNS

test is not suitable for measuring enhancement in Mode II fracture energy. Parametric

studies showed that the value of Mode II fracture energy input to the user interface

elements had relatively little effect on the ultimate failure load. For a model of Laminate

A, a 20% decrease in baseline Mode II fracture energy decreases the ultimate failure

load by only 4.11%, whereas a 20% increase gives only 0.15% increase in the ultimate

failure load. This implies that the test is not sensitive to fracture energy, even though in

the models this is enhanced by the through-thickness compressive stress. A robust

interface element will still need appropriate enhancement parameters for both strength

and fracture energy to handle both stress-based and fracture-mechanics-based problems

accurately. The value of η = 0.65 presented by Li et al. [11] for carbon-epoxy could be

used for Mode-II fracture energy controlled problems, which are normally not sensitive

to the damage initiation stress value used.

5. Conclusion

Through-thickness compressive stress on composites can significantly increase the

shear strength. Here a modified symmetric DNS test has been developed and performed

for direct measurement of the interlaminar shear strength of laminated composite

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materials under moderate through-thickness compression. The effect of through-

thickness compressive stresses on interlaminar shear strength can be characterised by a

material-dependent parameter η which is deduced from the experiments. Predictions

from various failure theories in the literature were compared against the experimental

results. In the absence of biaxial experimental data, the NU theory which is described

solely by simple material properties can be used for interlaminar shear failure

prediction. The effect of through-thickness compression on interlaminar shear strength

is normally ignored in interface element formulations. It has been shown that user

interface elements taking account of this phenomenon give an improved prediction of

the failure load. A direct test method for determining the enhancement parameter η on

Mode II fracture energy should be the subject of further investigation.

Acknowledgement

This work was supported by a Dorothy Hodgkin Postgraduate Award and Rolls-Royce

plc.

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