Parametric study on failure analysis of composite laminate under uniaxial tensile loading

Composite laminates exhibit complex failure behaviour as they are heterogeneous and orthotropic. Each ply or lamina that formed the laminates might yield and rupture at a different stress value. This phenomenon leads to first ply failure (FPF) behaviour which emphasised on the condition where a ply that fails first. This work investigated the influence of three parameters, i.e., material property, aspect ratio, and number of plies, each considered separately, to FPF of the laminates. Analyses were carried out to determine the FPF loads based on the Maximum Stress criterion using a commercially available finite element software i.e. ANSYS (ANSYS v12.1, 2009 SAS IP, Inc.). The results have shown that carbon laminate failed at the highest failure load compared to boron and graphite laminates. It was also found that the FPF load increased with the increasing of aspect ratio and plate thickness at all angles.