Experiments and progressive damage analyses of three‐dimensional five‐directional braided composite joints for propeller

Abstract In this article, experiments and numerical simulation on the tensile loading properties of three‐dimensional five‐directional braided composites are studied. Herein, axial tensile loading tests were performed on braided composite and aluminum joints for propeller. A repeated unit cells model was established to analyze the micromechanical properties of the braided joint, a progressive damage model was established to evaluate the damage in the joint. In contrast to aluminum joint, which exhibited a tensile failure mode in only one direction, the braided joint exhibited both longitudinal and transverse damage failure modes, of which the transverse damage was the primary failure mode. The load‐displacement curves and damage morphology of the numerical simulation were in a good agreement with the experimental results.