COMPOSITES

SCIENCE AND
TECHNOLOGY
Composites Science and Technology 67 (2007) 996–1008
www.elsevier.com/locate/compscitech

Experimental studies of thin-ply laminated composites

a,*
Sangwook Sihn , Ran Y. Kim a, Kazumasa Kawabe b, Stephen W. Tsai c

a
Nonmetallic Division, University of Dayton Research Institute, 300 College Park, Dayton, OH 45469-0168, USA
b
Industrial Technology Center of Fukui Prefecture, 61, Kawaiwashiduka-cho, Fukui-city, Japan
c
Think Composites, 101 Alma Street #703, Palo Alto, CA 94301, USA

Received 2 February 2006; received in revised form 24 May 2006; accepted 14 June 2006
Available online 24 August 2006

Abstract

A new processing method was developed for spreading fiber tows to make thin-ply laminated composites. The present method with a
constant airflow through sagged fiber filaments can efficiently spread the thick tows without damaging any fibers. This method is robust
and easy compared with other available thin-ply methods. The thin plies of thickness less than one-third of the conventional plies can
easily be made with the tow-spreading technology.
Experiments were performed to evaluate the performance of tow-spread, thin-ply laminated composites. To study the thickness effect
of the laminated composites, the test specimens were made with the same material and the same spread tows, but with dispersed and
grouped laminations of the plies. Uniaxial tension static and fatigue loadings were applied on both unnotched and open-hole specimens.
Impact and compression-after-impact tests were also conducted. From stress–strain curves, acoustic emission counts, X-ray photos,
c-scan images and observation of damage modes of failed specimens, it was observed that the thin-ply laminated composites can suppress
the microcracking, delamination and splitting damage for static, fatigue and impact loadings without special resin and/or 3-D reinforce-
ments. Therefore, the laminate design can be simplified by using higher strain allowable without a progressive failure analysis.
Ó 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Tow-spreading technology; C. Transverse cracking and delamination; B. Static and fatigue; C. Notch; B. Impact behavior

1. Introduction breakage. The failure behavior in the laminated composites

Fiber-reinforced laminated composites have been used
in many structural applications such as airplanes, ships
and sporting goods because of their superior specific prop-
erties compared with metal materials. The composites
structures can be damaged under mechanical and thermal
loadings. The typical damage behavior in the laminated
composites is transverse microcracking, fiber-breakage
and delamination. Typically, the transverse microcracking
through the thickness of the ply occurs as the first-ply fail-
ure, and the delamination damage follows. The fiber break-
age usually happens at the last stage of the failure.
However, a catastrophic failure can occur only with the
microcracking and delamination damage without the fiber
*
Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 937 255 9324; fax: +1 937 258 8075.
E-mail address: sangwook@stanfordalumni.org (S. Sihn).
is usually complicated and highly dependent on the proper-
ties of the constituent materials, fiber orientation, stacking
sequence, nature of loading, etc.
The delamination damage is known to happen because
of excessive interlaminar normal and shear stresses at the
ply boundaries. The interlaminar stresses can be concen-
trated relatively easily near the free edge of the laminated
composites. Delamination along the straight free edge of
the laminated composites under in-plane uniaxial loading
has been studied since the early 1970s [1,2]. Since then, a
great amount of work has been reported on the free-edge
problem in the laminated composites, indicating that
free-edge delamination is attributed to the existence of
interlaminar stresses which are highly localized in the
neighborhood of a free edge under the in-plane loading
[3,4]. The nature of the interlaminar stresses with regard
to their magnitude and sign can be accurately calculated

0266-3538/$ - see front matter Ó 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.compscitech.2006.06.008
 S. Sihn et al. / Composites Science and Technology 67 (2007) 996–1008
using the analytical model developed by Pagano and Soni
[5,6]. The magnitude and distribution of the interlaminar
stress components are widely varying and depend upon
the laminate layup, stacking sequence, properties of the
constituent materials and nature of loading.
Among the many components, a thickness effect on the
onset of delamination damage was studied by Kim and
Soni [7]. Experiments were performed with the laminated
composites having the same stacking sequence and volume
fraction of each ply orientation, but a different number of
layers. Results were reported for various combinations
of ply orientations, stacking sequences and number of
repeated layers, including the layups of [±30n/90]s, [±30n/
90n]s, [0n/±45n/90n]s, [0/±45/90n]s, [0/90n/±45]s, [0n/90n/
±45n]s, etc. [8], where n is the number of repeated layers.
The results show that for all cases, the onset of the delam-
ination stress decreases as n increases, meaning although
the stacking sequence and volume fraction of each ply ori-
entation remain unchanged, the delamination threshold
decreases with increasing numbers of grouped layers.
The thickness effect on the onset of the microcracking
damage cannot be adequately explained by the stress anal-
ysis alone. Since the stress analysis will determine identical
stress magnitudes for different thicknesses of laminates
under the same applied axial stress, a criterion based on
the stress magnitude would necessarily predict the same
onset stress for the microcracking damage. Rodini and
Eisenmann [9] used a probabilistic argument that the lam-
inate with thick plies contains statistically more defects
than laminates with thin plies. Consequently, the thicker
ply is likely to fail at a lower stress level. Wang, et al.
[10,11] used an energy release rate approach to describe
the fracture growth event in a series of specific laminates
and found that the onset stresses for transverse cracking
and delamination damage are seen to be inversely propor-
tional to the square-root of the thickness of the 90° layer in
[±25/90n]s, n = 1, 2, 3.
More experiment studies with a series of graphite-epoxy
laminates by Rodini and Eisenmann [9] on the edge delam-
ination in a laminate of [±45n/0n/90n]s, n = 1, 2, 3, and by
Crossman et al. [11] on initiation and growth of transverse
cracks and edge delamination in a laminate of [±25/90n]s,
n = 1, 2, 3 illustrated this thickness effect convincingly in
a b
Guide Roll
Original Tow w
Spread Tow
(Thick) (Thin)
CF 12K
Spread Width 16-32mm
Fig. 1. Schematic of tow-spreading method with a pneumatic method.
997
such a way that the occurrence of the transverse micro-
cracks and ply delamination might be suppressed by a
decrease in the ply thickness. Consequently, in order to
make better laminates resistant to the microcracking and
delamination damage, it is desirable to disperse the plies
of the same orientations rather than to group the plies,
so that the thickness of the plies of the same kind is thin.
For example, the quasi-isotropic laminates [(0/±45/90)n]s
will be better damage-resistant laminates than [0n/±45n/
90n]s. It will be even more desirable to use thinner plies
whose thickness is a fraction of the conventional plies.
There have been a few efforts to reduce the ply thickness
below that of the conventional ply of 0.125 mm (5 mil)
thickness. However, it required costly and slow processes.
Sometimes, the fibers in the ply can be damaged during
the process. Recently, a new novel process was developed
to make the thin plies by using a tow-spreading technology
[12,13]. This new process is low-cost and robust and does
not damage the fibers.
This paper will begin with the introduction of a new pro-
cessing method to make the thin-ply laminated composites.
This part will explain a novel tow-spreading technology
and its principle to make the thin plies. The latter part of
the paper will show experimental results to evaluate the
performance of tow-spread thin-ply laminated composites.
This part will compare thin- vs. thick-ply laminated com-
posites and will show the thickness effect on suppression
of microcracking and delamination damage.
2. Tow-spreading methodology
There are several known technologies to make a thin
ply. Among them, a promising and cost-effective way is
to use a tow-spreading technology that was developed by
Industrial Technology Center in Fukui Prefecture. The
method uses the conventional thick tow such as 12 K fila-
ment tow (see Fig. 1). The tow passes though a spreading
machine that is equipped with an air duct and a vacuum
that sucks the air downward through the air duct. The
air duct is located between these guide rolls. As the air
flows through the air duct with the help of the vacuum,
the tow sags downward toward the air flow direction so
that it loses tension and results in a tension-free state
Spread Tow
Air Duct
Original Tow
998 S. Sihn et al. / Composites Science and Technology 67 (2007) 996–1008
momentarily. With the uniform airflow continuously oper-
ating on the tow, the tow can be spread continuously and
stably. Furthermore, the airflow does not usually cause
any damage to the fiber filaments during this processing
because the airflow velocity is fairly low. Therefore, with
this present method, the tow can easily be spread without
damaging the filament fibers. The thin-ply laminate can
be made with the spread tows.
Fig. 2 is a schematic that shows how the present tow-
spreading processing method works with the help of air-
flow. When the air flows around both sides of the tow,
the difference in the velocity of the airflow, near and away
from the tow, results in the difference in the pressure at
these locations. As shown in the leftmost figure, the pres-
sure near the tow becomes greater than that away from
the tow. The pressure difference creates an aerodynamic
force that helps the filament fibers to lose the tension
momentarily. As the tow-spreading begins, the air flows
between the filaments of the tow to help the tow to spread
more and faster, as shown in the middle and rightmost fig-
ures. Fig. 3 shows samples of the original unspread 12 K
tow and the two different widths of the spread tows. The
wider the tow is spread, the thinner the tow thickness
becomes.
Initial state After spreading
Air flow
Filament
Fig. 2. Schematic of tow-spreading process with the help of airflow.
Fig. 3. CF12K tow and its spread tow: (a) original tow (width: 6 mm), (b)
spread tow (width: 12 mm) and (c) spread tow (width: 20 mm).
3. Experimental results
Experiments were conducted to evaluate the perfor-
mance of tow-spread thin-ply laminated composites. The
composites test specimens were made with Toray’s carbon
fibers (T800SC-24K) and Bryte’s epoxy film resin
(BT250E-1) as the fiber and matrix material in the compos-
ites, respectively.
The pristine tow was 6 mm wide and 0.14 mm thick.
This fiber tow was spread with the present tow-spreading
method and wound to a spool. The dimensions of the
spread tow were 20 mm in width and 0.04 mm (1.58 mil)
in thickness. An areal weight is 40 g/m2. The spread tows
in eight spools were wound off and placed side by side to
make a dry fiber sheet of 320 mm width. The spread tow
sheet was then placed on the BT250E-1 film resin sheet.
By the tackiness of epoxy resin film, the thin sheet adhered
to the epoxy resin film. At this stage, epoxy resin did not
impregnate the fiber tow yet.
The thin sheet adhered to the epoxy resin film was con-
verted to a prepreg sheet by an in-house prepregging device
developed by Industrial Technology Center in Fukui Pre-
fecture. The device is equipped with a sheet press system
and a sheet transfer system. The prepreg sheet was pro-
duced by repeating the press and transfer with the follow-
ing processing conditions: press pressure = 1 MPa, press
time = 3 s, press temperature = 90 °C, sheet transfer length
in one cycle = 90 mm for 2 s, processing speed = about
1 m/min. The prepreg sheets were laid up on a tool with
desired layup orientations. The laminates were cured in
an autoclave at a temperature of 125 °C and a pressure
of 0.5 MPa for 1 h [14]. The fiber volume fraction was
approximately 60%.
The thickness of the spread thin ply is 0.04 mm
(1.58 mil), which is less than one third of the conventional
ply of 0.125 mm (5 mil) thick. To study the thickness effect
of the laminated composites, test specimens were made
with the same material (T800SC-24K/BT250E-1) and the
same spread tows, but with two different laminations,
which are designated as THIN and THICK laminations.
Both THIN and THICK specimens were made with the
spread thin plies of 0.04 mm thickness. In the THIN lami-
nation, the thin plies of the same fiber orientation were dis-
persed in the thickness direction as shown in Fig. 4a,
whereas in the THICK lamination, five thin plies of the
same fiber orientations were grouped together to form a
single thick ply, as shown in Fig. 4b. Therefore, the thick-
ness of the single thick ply in the THICK specimen is
0.20 mm, which is five times thicker than that of the single
thin ply in the THIN specimen. Note that the total thick-
nesses of THIN and THICK specimens are the same since
the same numbers of thin plies were used.
Uniaxial tension static and fatigue loadings were applied
on both unnotched and open-hole specimens. We recorded
stress–strain curves and acoustic emission (AE) counts and
took X-ray photos to observe damage modes of failed
specimens.
 S. Sihn et al. / Composites Science and Technology 67 (2007) 996–1008 999

Fig. 4. Micrographs of test specimens made by tow-spread thin plies with (a) distributed lamination (THIN) and (b) grouped lamination (THICK). The
thickness of a grouped THICK ply is five times thicker than that of a THIN one.

3.1. Unidirectional laminates Table 1

Longitudinal Young’s modulus (EL), transverse Young’s modulus (ET),
longitudinal tensile strength (X), transverse tensile strength (Y) and
Before comparing the THIN and THICK laminates, we Poisson’s ratio (m) of unnotched unidirectional laminates
measured the basic laminate properties such as longitudinal
SD (%)
Young’s modulus (EL), transverse Young’s modulus (ET),
EL (initial) 168 GPa (24.3 msi) 2.3
longitudinal tensile strength (X), transverse tensile strength
EL (Overall) 185 GPa (26.8 msi) 2.3
(Y) and Poisson’s ratio (m). We used unidirectional [0]48 and ET 8.40 GPa (1.22 msi) 2.2
[90]48 laminates for measuring longitudinal and transverse X 2740 MPa (397 ksi) 4.8
properties, respectively. Fig. 5 shows the stress–strain Y 66.0 MPa (9.62 ksi) 10.4
curves of longitudinal and transverse unidirectional lami- m 0.33 2.7
nates under static loading, and Table 1 lists these properties
of the unnotched unidirectional laminates. Based on the
property values and the standard deviation, it can be con- 50.8 mm (2") 178 mm (7") 50.8 mm (2")
sidered that the laminate specimens fabricated from the
tow-spread thin plies were of good quality.

3.2. Unnotched tension w=25.4 mm (1")

strain gauges

The first laminate test considered was the unnotched
tension (UNT). Fig. 6 shows the configuration of the
UNT specimen. The width of the specimen is 25.4 mm
(1.000 ). We tested the THIN and THICK specimens of a
quasi-isotropic (QI) laminate (25/50/25), where three num-
bers in parentheses represent the percentage of the [0],
[±45] and [90] plies, respectively.
Strain gages were attached in the middle of the specimen
to measure the central far-field strain away from the free
edge, and 1.27 mm (0.0500 ) away from the free edge to mea-
sure the edge strain. Both longitudinal and transverse
Fig. 6. Test specimen under unnotched tension loading.
strains were measured in the central gauge location. Three
duplicate specimens were tested for each THIN and
THICK laminate.
Fig. 7 shows the stress–strain curves under the UNT
loading. Strain measured in the middle of the specimen in
longitudinal and transverse directions are shown in the fig-
ure. The dotted and solid lines are for the THIN and
THICK specimens, respectively. The initial slopes of

a 3000
b 80
EL [MPa] ET [MPa]
70
2500 170 8.4
172 8.4
60
166 8.4
2000 164
Stress [MPa]

Stress [MPa]

170 50 8.3
170 8.3
1500 161 40 8.1

30
1000
20
500
10

0 0
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2
Strain [%] Strain [%]

Fig. 5. Stress–strain curves of (a) longitudinal ([0]48) and (b) transverse ([90]48) unidirectional laminates under static loading.
1000 S. Sihn et al. / Composites Science and Technology 67 (2007) 996–1008

1200 Table 2
Transverse THIN (tply=0.04 mm) Young’s modulus (Ex), Poisson’s ratio (m) and longitudinal tensile strength
strains 1000 (X) of unnotched QI THIN and THICK specimens
Longitudinal
Longitudinal
strains
strains Ex SD X SD m
800
Stress [MPa]

THIN
600 THICK (5*tply) 61.2 GPa (8.9 msi) 2.1% 0.94 GPa (136 ksi) 5.1% 0.38
400 THICK
58.7 GPa (8.5 msi) 1.2% 0.85 GPa (123 ksi) 4.8% 0.38
200 Dotted lines: THIN
Solid lines: THICK
0 The THIN specimen shows little increase in the free-edge
-1 -0.5 0 0.5 1 1.5 2
strain after 50,000 cycles, while the THICK specimen
Strain [%]
shows a significant increase only after 1,000 cycles.
Fig. 7. Stress–strain curves of QI THIN and THICK laminates under Fig. 9 shows the X-ray images for the QI THIN and
UNT static loading. Strains were measured in the middle of specimen. THICK specimens taken after 50,000 cycles of the fatigue
loadings. The THICK specimen shows many microcracks
and delamination damage starting from the free edge at
stress–strain curves in both longitudinal and transverse
the sides of the specimen because of high interlaminar
directions are almost identical for the THIN and THICK
stresses, while the THIN specimen shows little or no visible
specimens. While the stress–strain curves of the THIN
damage.
specimens retain linearity nearly up to the ultimate failure
After 50,000 fatigue cycles at a stress level of 483 MPa
stress, the curves of the THICK specimens show a sudden
(76 ksi), the static loading was applied to measure the resid-
increase of strains near 690 MPa (100 ksi). The sudden big
ual stiffness and strength left in the fatigued specimens.
increase of the strain indicates unrecoverable severe dam-
Fig. 10 shows the residual stress–strain curves under the
age due to microcracks and delamination in the THICK
specimen. The averages and standard deviations of longitu-
dinal Young’s modulus, Poisson’s ratio and longitudinal THICK
THICK THIN
THIN
(5*tply=0.20 mm) (tply=0.04 mm)
tensile strength are listed in Table 2. The ultimate strength
of the THIN specimens is approximately 10% higher than
that of the THICK ones. a b
We also tested the UNT specimens under cyclic loading.
The fatigue condition was tension–tension fatigue with
2 Hz of frequency and 0.1 of stress ratio. The maximum
stress level was 483 MPa (76 ksi), which is approximately
60% of the ultimate strength of the QI THIN UNT speci-
mens. We monitored the increase of strains during the fati-
gue loading. Firstly, a static loading was applied before the
fatigue loading to measure the initial stress–strain curve (0
cycle). Then the fatigue loading was stopped after 1000,
10,000 and 50,000 cycles to measure the strains near the
free edge. Fig. 8 shows the stress–strain behaviors of Fig. 9. X-ray images of UNT QI: (a) THICK and (b) THIN specimens
the THIN and THICK specimens. The edge strain near after 50,000 cycles of fatigue loading at 60% stress level of ultimate static
the free edge increased as the fatigue cycles increased. strength.

a 600
b 600
THIN (tply=0.04 mm) THICK (5*tply=0.20 mm)
500 500
Stress [MPa]

Stress [MPa]

400 400

300 300

200 200 0 cycle

0 cycle
1,000 cycles
cycles 1,000 cycles
cycles
100 100 10,000cycles
cycles
10,000 cycles
cycles
50,000cycles
cycles 50,000cycles
cycles
0 0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2
Strain [%] Strain [%]

Fig. 8. Stress–strain curves of UNT QI: (a) THIN and (b) THICK laminates after fatigue loading. Strains were measured in the middle of specimen.
 S. Sihn et al. / Composites Science and Technology 67 (2007) 996–1008 1001

1200

1000 THIN (tply=0.04 mm)

800

Stress [MPa]
THICK
THICK(5*t
(5*tplyply)
600

400
THIN - Static
THICK -- Static
THICK Static
200 THIN - Residual
Residual
THICK -- Residual
THICK Residual
0
0 0.5 1 1.5 2
Strain [%]

Fig. 10. Residual stress–strain curves of UNT QI THIN and THICK laminates for static loading and after 50,000 cycles of fatigue loadings at a stress
level of 483 MPa (76.0 ksi).

UNT loading. The original static stress–strain curves taken
from Fig. 7 are also shown in this figure for comparison.
The static and residual curves for the THIN specimens
are nearly identical. However, the residual curve of the
THICK specimen shows degradation of both stiffness
and strength properties after fatigue loading. Table 3 lists
averages and standard deviations of Young’s modulus
and tensile strength under static and residual loadings.
After 50,000 cycles, the averages of Young’s moduli of
THIN and THICK specimens decreased by 2.8 and
17.7%, respectively. The average strength of THIN speci-
mens increased slightly by 4.4% while that of THICK spec-
imens decreased by 16.8%. Therefore, it can be concluded
that the THIN specimen is more durable than the THICK
one under the UNT fatigue loading.
3.3. Open-hole tension
The next test considered was the open-hole tension
(OHT) (see Fig. 11). The width of the specimen is 38.1 mm
(1.500 ), and the diameter of the hole is 6.35 mm (0.2500 ); thus
the ratio of the width to diameter of the hole is 6. We tested
the THIN and THICK specimens of (1) the quasi-isotropic
(QI) laminate (25/50/25) and (2) the hard laminate (50/40/
10), where three numbers in parentheses represent the per-
centage of the [0], [±45] and [90] plies, respectively.
3.3.1. QI laminate
The layup sequence of the QI laminates is [45/0/45/
90]ns, where subscripts n and s represent the number of
50.8 mm (2") 178 mm (7") 50.8 mm (2")
D=6.35 mm (1/4")
w=38.1 mm (1.5")
strain gauges
Fig. 11. Test specimen under open-hole tension loading.
repeats and the symmetric layup, respectively. The values
of n for the QI THIN and THICK specimens are 10 and
2, respectively. Therefore, the grouped ply thickness of the
THICK specimen is 0.2 mm (7.9 mil), which is five times
thicker than that of the THIN one. The total number of
tow-spread thin plies used for the QI laminates is 80. The
total thickness of the QI specimen is 3.2 mm (0.12600 ), which
is same for both THIN and THICK specimens.
Two strain gages were attached. One was attached in the
middle of the specimen between the hole and a grip to mea-
sure the far-field strain away from the hole edge and the
free edge, and the other was attached 1.27 mm (0.0500 ) away
from the hole edge to measure the edge strain. Two dupli-
cate specimens were tested for each THIN and THICK
laminate.
Fig. 12 shows the stress–strain curves under the OHT
loading. Strain measurement by both the far-field and
hole-edge strain gages are shown in the figure. The dotted
and solid lines are for the THIN and THICK specimens,
respectively. The initial slopes of the far-field stress–strain
curves are almost identical for the THIN and THICK

Table 3
Young’s modulus (Ex) and tensile strength (X) of unnotched QI THIN and THICK specimens under static and residual loading
Static SD Residual Degradation
Ex
THIN 61.2 GPa (8.9 msi) 2.1% 59.5 GPa (8.6 msi) 2.8%
THICK 58.7 GPa (8.5 msi) 1.2% 48.3 GPa (7.0 msi) 17.7%
X
THIN 0.94 GPa (136 ksi) 5.1% 0.98 GPa (142 ksi) 4.4%
THICK 0.85 GPa (123 ksi) 4.8% 0.70 GPa (102 ksi) 16.8%
1002 S. Sihn et al. / Composites Science and Technology 67 (2007) 996–1008

600 one. One of the possible reasons for the higher ultimate
THIN (tply) strength with the THICK laminate is due to the stress
500 Far-field
Far-field
relaxation near the hole edge after the initial failure.
400 Because of the stress concentration at the edge of the hole,
Stress [MPa]

THICK (5*tply)
the initial failure tends to occur near the hole. This initial
300 failure relaxes the stress near the hole, which leads to lower
Edge strain
Edge strain the stress concentration. The THIN laminate suppresses
200
Thin - Edge
the initial damage, so that the stresses are concentrated
100
Thin - Farfield
Farfield until catastrophic failure occurs.
Thick - Edge
Edge
Thick - Farfield
Farfield Fig. 13 shows AE counts of the QI THIN and THICK
0 specimens monitored during the OHT loading. The AE
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5
counts of the THIN appear to be less in count number
Strain [%]
and amplitude than those of the THICK. The THIN case
Fig. 12. Stress–strain curves of QI THIN and THICK laminates after shows almost no count at low load and big counts near
OHT static loading. the ultimate load. The THICK case shows many big counts
throughout the loadings up to the ultimate failure.
specimens. However, the hole-edge stress–strain curves of For one test specimen, the loading was increased up to
the THIN are more linear than those of the THICK. The 57.8 kN (13,000 lbf), which corresponds to a far-field stress
averages of the ultimate OHT strength of the QI THIN of 448 MPa (65 ksi), the loading was stopped, and an X-ray
and THICK specimens are 492 MPa (71.3 ksi) and was taken to see the damage up to this loading. Fig. 14
547 MPa (79.4 ksi), respectively. Unlike the UNT specimen shows the X-ray images of the THIN and THICK speci-
without the hole, the ultimate strength of the THIN speci- mens. Because of the stress concentration at the hole edge
mens is approximately 10% lower than that of the THICK as well as at the free edges on the sides of the specimen, one

a 600 b 600

500 500

400 400
Counts

Counts

300 300

200 200

100 100

0 0
0 10000 20000 30000 40000 50000 60000 70000 0 10000 20000 30000 40000 50000 60000 70000
Load[N] Load[N]

Fig. 13. Acoustic emission counts of QI (a) THIN and (b) THICK specimens after OHT static loading.

THICK
(ply thickness: 5*tply=0.20 mm)

Total thickness = 3.2 mm (0.126"). Near hole

THIN
(ply thickness: tply=0.04 mm)

Fig. 14. X-ray images of QI (a) THICK and (b) THIN specimens after OHT static loading at 448 MPa (65 ksi).
 S. Sihn et al. / Composites Science and Technology 67 (2007) 996–1008 1003

can expect the initial failure such as microcracking to occur
near these edges. The THICK specimen shows many
microcracks near the hole edge as well as the outer free
edges than the THIN one does. A closer view near the hole
edge on the right-hand side of the figure shows the micro-
cracks in the [0], [90] and [±45] directions, which is very
typical in QI laminated composites. However, the THIN
specimen shows no visible damage at the hole edge and
the free edges. Therefore, the difference of the ply thickness
results in this phenomenal difference in the damage
behavior.
Fig. 15 shows failed THIN and THICK specimens. The
THICK specimen shows a pull-out failure mode with the
failed sections at 45° and 45° angles as well as many del-
aminations from the side view. Meanwhile, the THIN spec-
imen shows a brittle type of net-section failure mode whose
failed section is perpendicular to the applied tension direc-
tion. The side view of the THIN specimen shows little
delamination.
We also tested the OHT specimens under cyclic loading.
The fatigue condition was tension–tension fatigue with
10 Hz frequency and 0.1 stress ratio. The maximum stress
level was 354 MPa (51.3 ksi), which is approximately 70%
of the ultimate strength of the QI OHT THIN specimens.
The increase of strains was monitored during the fatigue
loading. Firstly, a static test was conducted before the fati-
gue test to measure the initial stress–strain curve. Then the
fatigue loading was stopped after 1, 20,000 and 100,000
cycles to measure both far-field and hole-edge strains.
Fig. 16 shows the stress–strain behaviors of the THIN
and THICK specimens. Similar to the static case, the
change of far-field strain in both THIN and THICK spec-
imens was negligible during the fatigue loading. However,
the edge strain near the open hole increased as the fatigue
cycles increased. The THIN specimen shows little increase
in the hole-edge strain after 100,000 cycles, while the
THICK specimen shows a significant increase (nearly
100% increase) after only 20,000 cycles.
Photos and X-ray images were taken of the fatigue spec-
imens after 100,000 cycles of fatigue loading at 70% stress
level of the ultimate static strength (see Fig. 17). Side and
front views were taken with the digital camera and
X-ray, respectively. The fine line blurry areas in white color
in the X-ray image indicate microcracking and delamina-

a
THICK

After ultimate failure Near hole Side view

b
THIN

Fig. 15. QI (a) THICK and (b) THIN specimens after ultimate failure after OHT static loading.

a 400
b 400
Far-field
350 350 Edge strain
Far-field
300 300
Stress [MPa]

Stress [MPa]

250 250
Edge strain
200 200

150 150
0 cycle
100 100 0 cycle
1 cycle
20k cycles
cycles 1 cycle
50 50
100k cycles
cycles 20k cycles
cycles
0 0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3
Strain [%] Strain [%]

Fig. 16. Stress–strain curves of QI (a) THIN and (b) THICK laminates after OHT fatigue loading.
1004 S. Sihn et al. / Composites Science and Technology 67 (2007) 996–1008

a b
THIN
THIN THICK
THICK
(t(tply=0.04
=0.04 mm)
mm) (5*tply=0.20
(5*t =0.20 mm)
mm)

Side view Front view Side view Front view

Fig. 17. X-ray images of QI (a) THIN and (b) THICK specimens after 100,000 cycles of OHT fatigue loading at 70% stress level of ultimate static
strength.

tion damage, respectively. The difference in the severity of 1200

the damage in the THIN and the THICK specimens can Edge strain
1000
easily be seen from the figure.
Far-field strain
800
Stress [MPa]

3.3.2. Hard laminate

The hard laminate is made with 50% of [0], 40% of [±45]
and 10% of [90] degree plies. This layup is often used in
axial-loading dominant load-carrying structures such as
wings in an airplane. The layup sequence of the hard lam-
inates is [45/02/45/90/45/02/45/0]ns. The values of n for
the hard THIN and THICK specimens are 5 and 1, respec-
tively. Therefore, the thickness of grouped plies in the
THICK specimen is 0.2 mm (7.9 mil), which is five times
thicker than that of the THIN one. Total numbers of
tow-spread thin plies used for the hard laminates are 100.
The total thickness of the hard specimen is 4.0 mm
(0.15700 ). Far-field and hole-edge strain gages were attached
in the hard laminates. Two duplicate specimens were tested
for each THIN and THICK laminate.
Fig. 18 shows the stress–strain curves under the OHT
loading. Strain measurement by both the far-field and
hole-edge strain gages are shown in the figure. The initial
slopes of the far-field stress–strain curves are almost identi-
cal for the THIN and THICK specimens. The hole-edge
stress–strain curves of the THIN specimens are more linear
than those of the THICK ones until the ultimate failure
stress. The averages of the ultimate OHT strength of the
hard THIN and THICK specimens are 720 MPa (104 ksi)
and 967 MPa (140 ksi), respectively. Comparing with the
QI OHT case, the ultimate strengths of the hard THIN
specimens are even much lower than those of the THICK
ones. It is approximately 34% lower in this case. The reason
why the OHT ultimate strength of the THIN QI specimens
falls below that of the THICK ones can also be applied to
this hard laminate case. Because of the even higher stress
concentration at the hole edge, the difference becomes more
pronounced in this hard laminate case than the QI case.
600
400
Thin - Edge
Thin - Farfield
Farfield
200
Thick - Edge
Edge
Thick - Farfield
Farfield
0
0 0.5 1 1.5 2
Strain [%]
Fig. 18. Stress–strain curves of hard THIN and THICK laminates under
OHT static loading.
Fig. 19 shows failed hard THIN and THICK specimens.
Similar to the QI laminates, the THIN specimen shows the
brittle type of net-section failure mode whose failed section
is perpendicular to the applied tension direction. Mean-
while, the THICK specimen shows a pull-out failure mode
with the failed sections at 45° and 45° angles. The side
views show that the THICK specimen has much more
delamination damage than the THIN specimen.
The AE counts of the hard THIN and THICK speci-
mens were monitored during the OHT loading. The AE
counts were cumulated with the load increase and plotted
in Fig. 20. The figure clearly shows that the THIN speci-
mens have much less damage events than the THICK ones
throughout the load increase up to the ultimate failure.
We also tested the hard OHT specimens under cyclic
loading. The fatigue condition was tension–tension fatigue
at 5 Hz frequency and 0.1 stress ratio. The maximum stress
level was 483 MPa (70 ksi), which is approximately 70% of
the ultimate strength of the hard OHT THIN specimens.
Fig. 21 shows X-ray images for the hard THIN and
 S. Sihn et al. / Composites Science and Technology 67 (2007) 996–1008 1005

THIN
THIN

After ultimate failure Side view

b

THICK
THICK

Fig. 19. Hard (a) THIN and (b) THICK specimens after ultimate failure under OHT static loading.

10000 microcracking and delamination damage. As shown in

THICK the figure, a big difference can be observed in the amount
8000 of the damage after 73,000 fatigue cycles in this layup.
Cumulative Counts

6000 3.4. Impact

4000
If the thin-ply laminates suppress the onset of the micro-
cracking and delamination damage, one can expect that the
2000
THIN similar superiority can be observed under impact loadings.
0
We conducted impact testing of the THIN and THICK
0 30000 60000 90000 120000 150000 specimens and compared c-scan images that show the size
Load [N] and depth of the delamination damage due to the impact
Fig. 20. Cumulative acoustic emission counts of hard THIN and THICK
loading. We also performed compression-after-impact
specimens after OHT static loading. (CAI) tests to study the severity of the delamination dam-
age. Panel specimens were prepared for the CAI tests with
width and length dimensions of 102 mm (400 ) by 152 mm
THICK specimens taken after 73,000 cycles of the OHT (600 ), respectively. The panels were clamped at 600 sides in
fatigue loadings. Because of the high percentage of the 0° the length direction and free at 400 sides in the width direc-
ply, split damage behavior is expected in addition to the tion [15].

a THI
THIN
b THICK
THICK
(t(tply =0.04 mm)
ply=0.04 mm) (5*tply=0.20
(5*t =0.20 mm)
mm)

Fig. 21. X-ray images of hard (a) THIN and (b) THICK specimens after 73,000 cycles of OHT fatigue loading at 70% stress level of ultimate static
strength.
1006 S. Sihn et al. / Composites Science and Technology 67 (2007) 996–1008

Fig. 22 shows in-depth c-scan images after the impact

loading. Each round shape in a different color indicates
the delamination damage in each layer through the thick-
ness of the panel. It appears that the overall sizes of the
delamination damage are similar for THIN and THICK
specimens.
The impacted specimens were tested in compression
using the CAI test. Fig. 23 shows the test configuration
for the CAI test. Two strain gages were attached in the
middle of the panel on both sides of the surfaces to monitor
the instability under the compression loading.
Fig. 24 shows the stress–strain curves of the THIN and
THICK CAI specimens. We tested two duplicates of each
kind. The bifurcations of the curves toward left and right
sides indicate the two strain gage measurements in front
and back faces of the panel. Initially, both strain gages
on the panel were under compression. As the load Fig. 23. Test setup for compression after impact test.
increased, the panel buckled to cause the bifurcation of
the strain measurement. The figure clearly shows that the 1600
THICK specimens bifurcate earlier than the THIN ones. THIN
The early bifurcation at the lower stress level in the THICK 1400
specimens indicates more severe delamination damage than
the THIN ones. This result is preliminary and more study 1200
is needed for better understanding of the ply thickness
effect under impact loading. 1000
Stress [MPa]

THICK 800
4. Summary
600

A new processing method was developed for spreading

400 Thin #1
Thin #1
fiber tows to make thin-ply laminated composites. The
Thin #2
Thin #2
present method with a constant airflow through sagged
200 Thick #1
Thick #1
fiber filaments can efficiently spread the thick tows with-
Thick #2
Thick #2
out damaging any fibers. This method is robust and easy 0
compared with other available thin-ply methods. The thin -1 -0.8 -0.6 -0.4 -0.2 0 0.2 0.4

plies of thickness less than one-third of the conventional Strain [%]

plies can easily be made with the tow-spreading Fig. 24. Stress–strain curves of QI THIN and THICK laminates after
technology. CAI loading.

Fig. 22. In-depth c-scan images of QI (a) THIN and (b) THICK specimens after impact loading.
 S. Sihn et al. / Composites Science and Technology 67 (2007) 996–1008
We measured basic elastic and strength properties of the
thin-ply composites. Then the thickness effect was studied
by comparing THIN and THICK specimens of QI and
hard laminates with and without the hole defect under sta-
tic, fatigue and impact loadings. Experimental observations
from stress–strain curves, AE counts, X-ray and c-scan
images and observation of damage modes in failed speci-
mens indicate suppression and/or delay of microcracking,
delamination and splitting damage with the thin-ply lami-
nated composites with and without the hole defect.
Under UNT static loading, the stress–strain curves of the
THIN specimens retain linearity nearly up to the ultimate
failure stress, while the THICK specimens showed a big
increase in the strain, which indicates unrecoverable severe
damage due to microcracks and delamination in the THICK
specimen. The ultimate strength of the THIN specimens is
approximately 10% higher than that of the THICK ones.
Under UNT fatigue loading, THIN and THICK specimens
show phenomenal difference in both stress–strain curves and
X-ray images. The residual stiffness and strength of the
THIN laminates degrade negligibly after 50,000 fatigue
cycles at a 60% stress level of the ultimate static strength
compared with the THICK laminates.
With the open-hole defect, we observed a larger increase
of the strain and more AE counts near the hole edge with
the THICK specimens than with the THIN ones. The
X-ray images and failed specimens also show a phenome-
nal difference between THIN and THICK specimens with
both QI and hard laminates. However, the ultimate
strength and strain-to-failure of the OHT THICK speci-
mens are higher than that of the THIN ones with both
QI and hard laminates due to a possible reason of the stress
relaxation near the hole edge after the initial failure, which
leads to a lower stress concentration in the THICK speci-
men. Under fatigue loading, the change of hole-edge strain
in the THIN specimens was negligible after 100,000 cycles
of fatigue loading, whereas that in the THICK specimen
significantly increased after 20,000 cycles.
Finally, the in-depth c-scan images after the impact
loading indicate that the overall sizes of the delamination
damage are similar for THIN and THICK specimens.
However, the stress–strain behavior after the CAI tests
shows a delay of the bifurcations of the curves with the
THIN specimens indicating less severe delamination dam-
age in the THIN laminates than in the THICK ones.
5. Concluding remarks
We observed from many experimental results that the
thin-ply laminated composites can suppress the micro-
cracking and delamination damage without special resin
and/or 3-D reinforcements. Therefore, the laminate design
can be simplified by using higher strain allowable without
the need for a progressive failure analysis. The thinner
ply thickness will also provide more choice in optimizing
the laminate composites structures. The ply drop will be
smoother than in conventional thick-ply laminates.
1007
Thin plies can further be used in a hybrid lamination.
The conventional thick plies can still be used in the fiber-
dominant mode such as in the [0] ply, where the dominant
failure mode is fiber breakage. The hybrid usage of thin
and thick plies has the potential for highly damage-
resistant composites structures without much increasing
layup costs.
The present thin spread tow can also be used in the tex-
tile composites. Thin tows in textile composites such as
woven and braided composites result in less undulation
of the woven and braided tows than the conventional thick
tows. Less undulation means higher modulus and less
resin-rich area between the tow. Therefore the thin-ply tex-
tile composites can easily be expected to improve mechan-
ical performance with the superior suppression capability
of the microcracking in the resin-rich matrix and delamina-
tion damage between the yarns.
Finally, the present method also inspires a cost-effective
manufacturing process of the composites tows. The auto-
mated gentle spreading process of the large tows, such as
100 K and 200 K tows, can be cost-competitive in making
smaller tows such as 12 K tows rather than dealing with the
smaller tows themselves.
Acknowledgements
This work was sponsored by the Itochu Corporation
and Mitsuya Corporation through Think Composites.
The authors thank Yasushi Kiyobayashi from Itochu Cor-
poration, Kichiro Ishida from Mitsuya Corporation and
Shigeru Tomoda from Industrial Technology Center of Fu-
kui Prefecture in Japan for their valuable support. The
authors also thank Ron Esterline of the University of Day-
ton Research Institute for sample preparation and testing.
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