Thermal residual stresses in thick graphite/epoxy composite laminates—Uniaxial approach

Thermal residual stresses have been known to be very large in laminates of continuous-fiber-reinforced polymer composites. When the thickness of the laminate is large, however, the measurement of the residual stresses raises questions on the accuracy of the conventional methods. A novel concept of layer separation is developed to measure quantitatively and precisely the tensile residual stresses in thick plates with layered distribution of residual stresses. It is applied to thick [O₂/9O₄]_13s, AS/3501-6 graphite/epoxy laminates. The test specimens were mechanically modeled into the thin strips for the application of the new concept of layer separation. The tensile residual stresses measured in the 90-deg layers of these laminates are nonuniform throughout the specimen, and vary from 55.6 MPa to 71.4 MPa. It is very interesting to compare these values with the transverse strengthF ₂ ^tu of AS/3501-6 unidirectional composites, which is 65.4 MPa.