Modeling of Nonlinear Mechanical Behavior for 3D Needled C/C-SiC Composites Under Tensile Load

This paper established a macroscopic constitutive model to describe the nonlinear stress–strain behavior of 3D needled C/C-SiC composites under tensile load. Extensive on- and off-axis tensile tests were performed to investigate the macroscopic mechanical behavior and damage characteristics of the composites. The nonlinear mechanical behavior of the material was mainly induced by matrix tensile cracking and fiber/matrix debonding. Permanent deformations and secant modulus degradation were observed in cyclic loading-unloading tests. The nonlinear stress–strain relationship of the material could be described macroscopically by plasticity deformation and stiffness degradation. In the proposed model, we employed a plasticity theory with associated plastic flow rule to describe the evolution of plastic strains. A novel damage variable was also introduced to characterize the stiffness degradation of the material. The damage evolution law was derived from the statistical distribution of material strength. Parameters of the proposed model can be determined from off-axis tensile tests. Stress–strain curves predicted by this model showed reasonable agreement with experimental results.