Experimental Investigation and Numerical Analysis of the In-Plane Tensile Behavior of a Triaxially Braided Composite with Subcell Modeling Approach

Abstract

To improve the prediction of the response of braided composite structures, a subcell approach is under development. This method has shown successes in predicting the moduli of braided composites. To examine its capability in strength prediction, a combined experimental and analytical study has been conducted for a [/6/−6]6 braided composite. This includes experimental investigations of the tensile stress-strain behavior of the composite at five off-axis angles of , 3, 45, 6, and 9°, and numerical simulations of the experiments using the subcell approach. It was observed that the measured tensile strength, damage, and failure modes varied significantly with the off-axis angle. The subcell modeling approach was successful in predicting both the strength and failure mode for the , 3, and 6° coupons but overpredicted the strength for the 9° coupons, where a strong free edge effect on damage initiation and failure was seen in the experiment. The results show that, in the absence of local free edge effects, the subcell approach is promising as a viable and computationally efficient method for the modeling of triaxially braided composite structures.