Mechanical behavior of the composite curved laminates in practical applications

In order to determine the mechanical behavior of the curved laminates in practical applications, three right-angled composite brackets with different lay-ups were investigated both experimentally and numerically. In the experimental, quasi-static tests on both unidirectional and multidirectional curved composite brackets were conducted to study the progressive failure and failure modes of the curved laminates. In the numerical modeling, three-dimensional finite element analysis was used to simulate the mechanical behavior of the laminates. Here, a strength-based failure criterion, namely the Ye criterion, was used to predict the delamination failure in the composite curved laminates. The mechanical responses of the laminate subjected to off-axis tensile loading were analyzed, which include the progressive failure, the failure locations, the load-displacement relationships, the load-strain relationships, and the stress distribution around the curved region of the angled bracket. Subsequently, the effects of stacking sequence and thickness on the load carrying capacity and the stiffness of the laminates were discussed in detail. Through the experimental observation and analysis, it was found that the failure mode of all the specimens is delamination, which is initiated abruptly and develops unstably on the symmetric plane, close to the inner surface, and about $29^\circ$ along the circumferential direction. It was also found that the stacking sequence and the thickness have significant influences on both the load carrying capacity and the stiffness of the laminates. However, the thickness effect is less than that on the curved aluminum plate.