| Abstract: | Compression tests on twenty unidirectional(UD) carbon fibre reinforced plastic(CFRP) specimens are conducted, the statistics on the measured compressive strength is calculated, and the fracture surface is characterized. Two types of different fracture surface are experimentally observed, and they are corresponding to very different values on the compressive strength. A finite element(FE) analysis is conducted to investigate the influence of random fibre packing on the compressive strength. And a riks method(provided in ABAQUS software) is applied in FE model to analyze fibre buckling behaviour in the vicinity of compressive failure. The FE analysis agrees well with the experimental observation on the two types of buckling modes and also the partition of compressive strength. It is clearly shown that the random fibre packing lays a significant influence on the random variability of compressive strength of CFRP. |
