Inelastic behavior of an AS4/PEEK composite under combined transverse compression and shear. Part I: experiments

The nonlinear behavior in shear and transverse compression of unidirectional AS4/PEEK and their interaction are investigated experimentally. The composite is rate dependent even at room temperature and its rate exponent is similar to that of neat PEEK. The material is tested under pure shear, pure compression and under biaxial loading histories. The biaxial tests are performed in a custom facility on thin strips of the material. The facility allows freedom to choose the loading path in the biaxial stress and strain spaces of interest. Tests are performed for three biaxial loading paths. In the first, the specimen is sheared then compressed while the shear stress is held constant; in the second, the specimen is compressed then sheared while the compressive stress is held constant; and in the third, the specimen is loaded simultaneously by proportional amounts of compression and shear. It was found that the induced deformation is influenced significantly by the loading history followed. Also, initial loading in shear or compression has only a modest effect on subsequent loading of the other type. An unorthodox yielding behavior for the composite results from this lack of interaction. Finally, the stresses at failure are found to trace an elliptical path in the shear–transverse compression plane, but the failure stress state is not significantly affected by the loading path followed.