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Mechanical Testing of Fiber-Reinforced Composites

Dale Wilson, The Johns Hopkins University, Leif A. Carlsson, Florida Atlantic University

Types of Interlaminar Shear Test

In practice, the split Hopkinson pressure bar (SHPB) technique, as described in the Section High Strain Rate Testing in
this Volume, is probably the best established for producing reliable data at impact rates of strain. Several different types of
interlaminar shear specimen have been developed for use with this technique (Ref 66, 67) but all have some limitations.
Although very inconvenient to manufacture, thin-walled tubular specimens cut with the axis perpendicular to the
interlaminar plane and tested in the torsional SHPB would seem to offer a good chance of success, and excellent results
have been obtained this way for a plain-weave glass fiber reinforced plastic (GFRP) (Ref 68). However, the continuous
variation of shear direction in relation to the directions of reinforcement leads to problems in specimens with a cross-ply
lay-up (Ref 69), problems that are likely to be equally if not more severe with unidirectionally reinforced specimens. This
difficulty is overcome by the use of a double-lap design of specimen tested in the tensile SHPB (Ref 70). In these tests,
however, the shear stress on the interlaminar failure planes shows some considerable variation, and significant normal
stresses are present at the ends of the failure plane. More recently an improved single-lap design of shear specimen has been
developed for testing in a modified-compression SHPB. This was first used by Bouette et al. (Ref 71) to determine shear
modulus at high rates of strain and later by Bouette et al. (Ref 72) and by Dong and Harding (Ref 73) to determine
interlaminar shear strength. This type of specimen has the advantage that the shear stress on the central interlaminar plane is
close to uniform and the normal (peeling) stress is very mall. More recently, the most commonly used design of single-lap
specimen has been the subject of a detailed analysis by Hallett et al. (Ref 74) who have shown that with a cross-ply lay-up,
failure may not initiate on the central plane but in a region of stress concentration adjacent to the central interlaminar plane.
Nevertheless this remains the best documented and probably the most versatile technique for composites of different
lay-ups and so will be the one presented in more detail here.

Footnote
* The section Interlaminar Shear Properties of Fiber-Reinforced Composites at High Strain Rates was written by John
Harding and Stephen Hallett, Oxford University. The section Fatigue Testing and Behavior of Fiber-Reinforced
Composites was written by W. Steven Johnson and Ramesh Talreja, Georgia Institute of Technology.

References cited in this section

66. S.M. Werner and C.K.H. Dharan, The Dynamic Response of Graphite Fiber/Epoxy Laminate at High Shear Strain
Rate, J. Compos., Mater., Vol 20, 1986, p. 365374

67. C.Y. Chiem and Z.G. Liu, Modelling of Dynamic Behavior of Composite Materials, Proc. IMPACT 87, Impact
Loading and Dynamic Behavior of Materials, C.Y. Chiem, H.-D. Kunze, and L.W. Meyer, Ed., DGM
Informationsgesellschaft mbH, Oberursel, 1988, Vol 2, p 579586

68. H. Leber and J.M. Lifshitz Interlaminar Shear Behavior of Plain-Weave GRP at Static and High Rates of Strain,
Compos. Sci. Technol., Vol 56,1996, p 391405

69. T. Parry and J. Harding, The failure of Glass-Reinforced Composites under Dynamic Torsional Loading, Colloque
Int. Du CNRS No. 319, Plastic Behaviour of Anisotropic Solids, J.P. Boehler, Ed., (CNRS, Paris, 1988) p 271288

70. J. Harding and Y.L. Li, Determination of Interlaminar Shear Strength for Glass/Epoxy and Carbon/Epoxy Laminates
at Impact Rates of Strain, Compos. Sci. Technol., Vol 45, 1992, p 161171

71. B. Bouette, C. Cazeneuve, and C. Oytana, Shear in Carbon/Epoxy Laminates at Various Strain Rates, Proc.
ECCM-4, Developments in the Science and Technology of Composite Materials, J. Fuller et al., Ed., (Elsevier
Applied Science, London and New York) 1990, p 937942

72. B. Bouette, C. Cazeneuve, and C. Oytana, Effect of Strain Rate on Interlaminar Shear Properties of Carbon/Epoxy
Composites, Compos. Sci. Technol., Vol 45, 1992, p 313321

73. L.M. Dong and J. Harding, A Single-Lap Shear Specimen for Determining the Effect of Strain Rate on the
Interlaminar Shear Strength of Carbon-Fiber Reinforced Laminates, Composites, Vol 25, 1994, p 129138

74. S.R. Hallett, C. Ruiz, and J. Harding, The Effect of Strain Rate on the Interlaminar Shear Strength of a
Carbon/Epoxy Cross-Ply Laminate: Comparison between Experiment and Numerical Prediction, Compos. Sci.
Technol., Vol 59, 1999, p 749758
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