Microbuckling of Lamina-Reinforced Composites

Compressive strength and failure modes of unidirectionally lamina-reinforced composites were studied both theoretically and experimentally. The failure modes investigated included microbuckling and compressive strength failure of the reinforcement. The influence of the following parameters on compressive strength was investigated experimentally: lamina volume fraction, lamina end fixity, lamina thickness, specimen geometry, and matrix properties. The two-dimensional microbuckling theory showed good correlation with test data from specimens designed to fail by microbuckling. As the Young's modulus of the matrix increased, the failure mode changed from microbuckling to compressive failure of the reinforcement.