Effects Of Orientation Angles Of Fibers On Mesomehcanics Of Glass Fiber-reinforced Polymer (GFRP) Composites

Glass fiber-reinforced polymer (GFRP) composites are widely used in low-weightconstructions due to high specific strength and modulus. In-situ experiments of damage growthin under unidirectional loading are carried out. By analyzing the experimental results of severalgroups of samples with different fiber orientation angles, the effect of the orientation angles ofglass fibers on the mechanical properties of composites and the damage mechanisms is analyzed.The damage mechanisms and microstructural changes in GFRP subject to unidirectional loadingare observed. An analytical model based on single discontinuity theory is proposed to explain thecompressive strength of glass fiber reinforced composites. From the basic theory of elasticmechanics, a procedure which can be applied to evaluate the elastic stiffness matrix of FRPcomposite as an analytical function of fiber orientation angle (0-90o), is developed inMathematica environment to explore the effect of fiber orientation angle on the Young’s modulusof composites. Different finite element models with inclined glass fiber are developed via theABAQUS Scripting Interface to explore the effect of inclined angle of fiber on the Young’smodulus of composites. The comparative analysis shows that the peak strength, Young’smodulus decrease with increasing the fiber angles at first, and slightly increase after45-60. Therelation among the Young’s modulus, fiber content and fiber angel is obtained. Furthermore,fracture mechanism of GFRP under tensive loads is studied by using XFEM.