Microbuckling Failure of Circular Fiber-Reinforced Composites

Abstract

Theoretical and experimental studies are presented on microbuckling compression failure of fiber-reinforced unidirectional composites subjected to compression loads parallel to the fiber direction. The approximate microbuckling equation is derived by the energy method. Results predicted from this equation are compared with test data and good agreement is found, indicating that for certain combinations of constituents, microbuckling is a valid failure mode. The influence of the following parameters on microbuckling is investigated theoretically and experimentally: fiber volume fraction, fiber shape, fiber size, properties of fibers and resins, fiber-end configuration, and specimen geometry. Other failure modes for composites subjected to compression loading are also briefly discussed.