Compressive failure of composite plates during one-sided heating

Intermediate-scale, one-sided heating tests were performed on compressively loaded E-glass vinyl ester composite laminates. The tests were designed to investigate the effect of varying the applied stress, applied heat flux, and laminate dimensions on structural response. Three failure modes were observed in testing: large-scale buckling, localized kinking, and forced-response deflection. The failure modes were dependent on applied stress and independent of applied heating. The times-to-failure of the laminates exhibited an inverse relationship with the applied stress and heating levels. The use of a single temperature was incapable of quantifying laminate failure due to variations in temperature at failure for a given stress level. A dimensionless relationship was developed as a function of temperature for the applied stress and slenderness ratio. This relationship compares the applied stress, slenderness ratio, and laminate temperature at failure and may be used in design of composite laminate structures to determine failure.