Experimental and Numerical Study of the Open-Hole Tensile Strength of Carbon/Epoxy Composites

Open-hole tension tests are a part of the qualification process for composite parts that need to be joined to other parts in aircraft structures [1]. With each new material, a new set of tests is required. To reduce costs, it is desirable to develop analysis tools for the prediction of damage and failure in such tests, so that the amount of testing can be reduced and predictions can be made about material behaviour early in the design process. In this paper, an experimental and numerical study is presented on the notched (open-hole) strength of high-strength carbon/epoxy composites (HTA/6376). Open-hole tension tests have been performed on specimens with three different lay-ups — quasi-isotropic, zero-dominated, and cross-ply — in accordance with procedures in available standards. The data observed are being used to develop several methods for predicting the notched strength, and results from one such method using a progressive damage analysis are presented with comparisons with experiments. The predictions of specimen stiffness and failure load were found to agree well with experiments. To gain insight into the failure process, damage progression maps are shown.