Shear Behaviour of the Delaminated Glass Fibre Reinforced Composite Laminates

Abstract

Composite materials are widely used nowadays because of their low weight, high stiffness, ease in manufacturing of complicated shapes, resistance to corrosion and low thermal expansion. They are extensively used in manufacturing of aircraft structures and space vehicles. Composite materials provide greater flexibility of the properties by using different types of fibres and matrices. The present work describes the shear behaviour analysis of glass/epoxy composite on four different types of models, viz. composite plate having circular, square, rectangular delamination and one without delamination. The analysis was conducted in order to determine the effect of different delamination geometries on the shear strength of glass fibre reinforced polymers (GFRPs). The results obtained show that GFRP with circular delamination have lower shear strength and higher stress concentration. Hence, failure will occur faster in case of composite materials having circular delamination as compared to the square and rectangular delaminations.