Materials (AERO95005) – Topic 11 (2019/20) 1

Composites
 Materials (AERO95005) – Topic 11 (2019/20) 2

Content and Key Objectives of Topic 11b (Composites)

• Revision of composites – Expensive, but can ‘engineer the material’
• Composite Constituents
 Fibres - Useful website -
 Matrices –
https://netcomposites.com/
• Composite Architecture –
 link to processing/properties
• Examples of Application of different Architectures
• Mechanical Properties of Composites
 Strength
 Toughness
• Applications
Background Information:
Ashby and Jones, Engineering Materials 2, 4th Ed, Chapter 28
Hull and Clyne Book – General Reading
Notes associated with slides (PPT version on BB)
 Materials (AERO95005) – Topic 11 (2019/20) 3

Revision – Definition of a Composite

A B
+

Particulate Short fibre Continuous fibre Laminated

Examples
(Concrete) (Plastic boat hulls) (Reinforced concrete) (Plywood)

Jones and Ashby, Engineering Materials 2, Section 28.1

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Revision – Composites
• Composite industry - grown rapidly in past 30 years
 Glass-fibre reinforced polymers (GFRP or fibreglass)
 Carbon-fibre reinforced polymers (CFRP).
• Composites challenge conventional materials in many applications.
• Problem;
 Originally touted as the universal panacea for structural applications
 Led to inappropriate use of the material and poor design
 Well publicised disasters (such as RB211)
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Introduction – Rolls-Royce RB 211 Blade

• High strength carbon fibres developed at

RAE, Farnborough in 1960’s
 RB211 Hyfil blade in 1968.
 Catastrophically failed during ‘birdstrike’
test.
• Ultimately led to bankruptcy of Rolls-Royce.
• Reason for failure;
 Black aluminium approach to design
 Poor understanding of criticality of
secondary (transverse) stresses.
 Poor control of defects (fibre waviness,
local variation in Vf, etc)
 Disastrous commercial contract
• Lessons have been learnt; RB211 Hyfil blade Rolls Royce CTi
(1968) blade (2017)
 Now 3D-composites being used.
 Materials (AERO95005) – Topic 11 (2019/20) 6

Revision – Composites
ADVANTAGES
 High stiffness & strength at low
weight
 Properties can be tailored by choice
of matrix & reinforcement
 Good corrosion resistance & fatigue
properties
 Toughness through multiple crack
paths

DISADVANTAGES
 Higher cost than most conventional
materials
 Low strength & toughness in certain
directions
 Most light (polymer) composites
unsuitable for high temperatures
Materials (AERO95005) – Topic 11 (2019/20) 7

Composites –
Constituents
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Fibres
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Matrices
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Polymer Composite Materials (PMCs)

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Comparison between Thermosets

Polymer Advantages Disadvantages
Polyester Easy to use Only moderate mechanical properties
Lowest cost of resins available (£1-2/kg) High styrene emission in open moulds
High cure shrinkage
Limited range of working times

Vinylester Very high chemical/environmental resistance Post-cure required for good properties
Higher mechanical properties than polyesters High styrene content
Higher cost than polyesters (£2-4/kg)
High cure shrinkage

Epoxies High mechanical and thermal properties More expensive than vinlyesters (£3-
High water resistance 15/kg)
Long working times available Critical mixing
Resistance upto 140°C wet/220°C dry Corrosive handling
Low cure shrinkage
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Thermoplastic Matrices
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Other Matrices
Phenolics
• Good fire-resistance, but brittle
• Typical cost: £2-4/kg
Cyanate Esters
• Dielectric properties & upto 200°C (wet).
• Typical cost: £40/kg.
Polyurethanes
• High toughness
• Typical cost: £2-8/kg
Bismaleimides (BMI)
• Perform upto 230°Cwet/250°C dry
• Aircraft engine inlets
• Typical cost: >£50/kg.
Polyimides
• Up to 250°C wet/300°C dry).
• Missile & aero-engine components.
• Extremely expensive (>£80/kg)
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Comparison with Aerospace Metals

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Composites
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Composite Architecture
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Different Types of Fibre Composite

Short fibre composites

Composite laminates
from unidirectional plies

2D weaves
(lower in-plane stiffness & strength)

3D weaves
(lower in-plane stiffness & strength)
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Processing of Polymer Composites

Intrinsically linked to architecture of the composite

1K Tows 3K Tows
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Filament, Tow & Fibre Placement (AFP)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLjTixmFUkM
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Architecture – Unidirectional Tape (ATP)

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Architectures – Woven
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Plain Twill

Uniweave 5-Harness Satin

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Mixed Woven and Spread Tow

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Architectures – Non-Crimp Fabrics/Uniweave

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Through-thickness Reinforcement
– Stitching, Tufting & Z-pinning
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Architectures – 2D and 3D Composites

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IeST0vfDuhw
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Mechanical Properties
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Revision - Composite Moduli

Ecomposite  E f V f  Em (1  V f )

 V f (1  V f ) 
Ecomposite  1   
E Em 
 f 

Jones and Ashby, Engineering Materials 2, Section 28.3

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Strength – Composite Failure Modes

• Large number of failure modes that can exist;
 Fibre fracture
 Matrix fracture
 Fibre/matrix interface failure
 Delamination
 + possible interactions.
• Pure delamination characterised using fracture mechanics.
• The other modes are not so easily dealt with.
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Types of Composite Failure Modes

3 Materials (AERO95005) – Topic 11 (2019/20) 31
1 Interactions between Failure Modes
20mm

Ply splitting

Microbuckling

Delamination
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Longitudinal Tensile Strength

Jones and Ashby, Engineering Materials 2, Section 28.4

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Tensile Failure
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Longitudinal Compressive Strength

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Compressive Failure
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Composites - Compression
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Failure Criteria - Composites

sy
Tension in y
Failure envelope

sx
Compression in x Tension in x

s x, s y

Compression in y
 Materials (AERO95005) – Topic 11 (2019/20) 38

Failure Criteria - Composites

sy
Tension in y

sx
Compression in x Tension in x

s x, s y
Within envelope
– no failure
Compression in y

 Materials (AERO95005) – Topic 11 (2019/20) 39

Failure Criteria - Composites

sy
Tension in y

sx
Compression in x Tension in x

s x, s y
Outside envelope
– failure!!!
Compression in y

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Failure Criteria - Composites

sy
Tension in y
f(sx,sy)?

sx
Compression in x Tension in x

Compression in y
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Failure Criteria - Composites

• No universally accepted method.
• Commonly used are ‘theories of failure’, based on yield theories of metals.
• There are over 40 including;
 Maximum strain
 Tsai-Hill
 Hart Smith

Tension Schematic envelope

Elastic theory (Lekhnitskii+progressive
max stress failure theory)

Compression

Tension

Not drawn to scale

Compression
 Materials (AERO95005) – Topic 11 (2019/20) 42

Composite Failure Criteria

Peculiarities of composite failure
• Anisotropic  strength dependent on direction
• Failure phenomena and strengths differ in tension and compression
• Strength reflects rate and temperature sensitivity of fibres and matrix

Non-interactive criteria (i.e. strength in one direction does not influence

strength in the second direction);
• Max Strain, Max Stress, Von Mises
• Allow prediction of failure mode
• Easily implemented in progressive damage simulations

Interactive criteria (i.e. strengths in different directions influence each other)

• Tsai-Hill, Tsai-Wu
• Do not allow prediction of failure mode – just give a ‘failure index’
• Easily implemented for ranking by first ply failure
• More advanced criteria require complex biaxial testing
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Composite Failure Criteria

– World Wide Failure Exercise (WWF)
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Composite Failure Criteria – World Wide Failure Exercise

• Which failure criteria work best ? (if at all)

• Issue of failure of polymer based composite materials: ”religious” war!
• Global Round Robin Investigation into the Maturity of World-Wide Failure
Theories

• Mike Hinton, Structural Materials Centre,

• QinetiQ, Farnborough, UK

Objectives:
• Comparison and evaluation of failure criteria
• Which ones work the best ? (if at all)
• Representatives for all the most ”important” failure criteria were invited to
participate
• Laminate configurations, load cases and input data (measured stiffnesses,
strengths, …) defined by QinetiQ
 Materials (AERO95005) – Topic 11 (2019/20) 47

World Wide Failure Exercise

• Test-case #9: ±55° GRP laminate
• Pressure tubes; filament wound tubes of E-glass/epoxy
• Generated biaxial failure envelope; i.e. entire s1, s2 plane
• E1=45.6GPa, E2=16.2GPa, G12(initially)=5.83GPa, n12=0.278, n23=0.4,
GIC=165J/m2, a1=8.6 10-6 °C-1, a2=26.4 10-6 °C-1
• Stress free temperature: 120 °C
• Stacking sequence: +55°/-55°/-55°/+55°
Materials (AERO95005) – Topic 11 (2019/20) 48

World Wide Failure Exercise

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Composite Failure Criteria - Summary

• No widespread agreement on which is the best failure criterion – every
criterion has limitations

• Maximum stress and strain criteria - do not take interactions into account;
a particular problem when s2 and t12 dominate.
• Interactive criteria do not take into account the failure mode – only give a
failure index.

• To represent underlying physics; at least one equation for each failure mode

• Several other anomalies have been identified - compression-compression

quadrant; a rise in failure load is predicted on decreasing the material's
transverse compressive strength.
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Prof Pinho has won the World Wide Failure Exercise (WWF)
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Toughness of Composites

• Work done in pulling a fibre out is given

approximately by

• Total work done per unit crack area is

• Assumes l < 2xc.

• If l > 2xc fibres will not pull out, but will break.
Jones and Ashby, Engineering Materials 2, Section 28.5
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Toughness of Composites

• Thus optimum toughness l = 2xc

• To get a high toughness, you should use strong

fibres in a weak matrix (though of course a weak
matrix gives a low strength).
• Gives CFRP and GFRP a toughness 50 kJ/m²
 higher than matrix (5 kJ/m²)
 fibres 0.1 kJ/m²
• Cook-Gordon Mechanism

Jones and Ashby, Engineering Materials 2, Section 28.5

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Tensile Failure Mechanisms

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Toughness of Composites
• A crucial issue is bonding of the
reinforcement to the matrix;
 Too weak - the composite will
have insufficient strength &
stiffness.
 Too strong - composite may be
unacceptably brittle.
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Delamination
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Fracture Toughness Testing

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Fracture Toughness Testing

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Mode I – Double Cantilever Beam (DCB)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ob-3Coej8rs
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Mode I – Double Cantilever Beam (DCB)

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Mode I – Double Cantilever Beam (DCB)

G from
finite element model
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Mode I – Double Cantilever Beam (DCB)

G <GIC
NO GROWTH

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Mode I – Double Cantilever Beam (DCB)

G >GIC
DAMAGE
GROWTH!!!!

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Applications
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Polymer Composite Components in Civil Aerospace

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A320 Composite Components

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A380 Composite Components

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A380 Composite Components

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Boeing 787
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A350
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Composite Fuselage?
What are the issues?
• Environmental Threats?
Runway debris (lower fuselage)
• Environmental Threats?
Hail (upper fuselage on ground)
• Loading conditions?
Impact (ground vehicles)
• Manufacturing Issues?
Lightning strike (once per year)
• Ownership Issues?
• Loading conditions?
Mainly tensile (pressurisation), cyclic
Lower fuselage (compression)
Bending/Torsion
• Manufacturing Issues?
Joints/curved structures
‘Springback’
• Ownership Issues?
Inspection/repair of curved structure
Acoustic issues
 Materials (AERO95005) – Topic 11 (2019/20) 71

Polymer Composites on Military Aircraft

Structural Wt 5,647 lb
(Including Gun
Paks and Strakes)

Nonmetallics Total 1,510 lb

Acrylic 100 lb
Carbon/Epoxy 1,204 lb
Fiberglass/Epoxy 5 lb
Carbon/BMI 195 lb
Fiberglass/BMI 6 lb

Metallics 4,137 lb

Aluminum Carbon/BMI
Steel and Nickel Fiberglass/BMI
Titanium Acrylic
Carbon/Epoxy Other
Fiberglass/Epoxy

CC22643041.ppt
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Polymer Composites on Military Aircraft

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Polymer Composites on Military Aircraft

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Composite Components on Transport Aircraft

Hercules C130
Boeing C17

V22 Osprey
A400M
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Composite Components on Helicopters

Apache Lynx

Tiger EH101
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Composite Components on Helicopters

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Composite Components on Helicopters

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Composite Components for Space Applications

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Composite Components for Space Applications

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZhH2B-EI1I&feature=related

03:00 – 09:00
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Rail Composite Components

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Marine Composite Components

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Infrastructure
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Wind Turbines
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Automotive Applications
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Automotive Applications – Bikes

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Composites Summary (Topic 8b)

• Revision of composites – Expensive, but can ‘engineer the material’
• Composite Constituents
 Fibres – carbon, glass, others
 Matrices –TP, TS, others
• Composite Architecture
 Link to processing/properties
 Tape, Woven, 3D, etc
• Mechanical Properties of Composites
 Strength - WWFE
 Toughness – Cook-Gordon Mechanism
• Applications – Transportation; first tertiary structures – now in primary
Background Information:
Ashby and Jones, Engineering Materials 2, 4th Ed, Chapter 28
Hull and Clyne Book – General Reading
Notes associated with slides (PPT version on BB)
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Composites Worked Example (1)

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Composites Worked Example (1)

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Composites Worked Example (2)

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Composites Worked Example (2)

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Composites Worked Example (3)

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Composites Worked Example (3)