Nacre-inspired design of CFRP composite for improved energy absorption properties

Abstract Discontinuous unidirectional fiber-reinforced composites are shown to possibly exhibit pseudo-ductile failure that is lacking in continuous fiber composites. The aim of this paper is to use a discontinuous and interdigitated design strategy which mimicks the nacre structure to improve the specific energy absorption (SEA) of a carbon/expoxy composite tube. Quasi-static axial compressive experiment is combined with a digital image correlation system to analyze the failure process of the specimens. Four kinds of tubular specimens which are based on different ply cut intervals and distributions are fabricated and crushed. The load-crushed displacement curves and the SEA values are obtained showing that circular shaped continuous ply cuts result is the highest fluctuation of the compressive force. Moreover, the tubes with helical and nacre mimicking ply cut structures result in a flatter load-crushed displacement curve. This work demonstrates that in a crush process, unidirectional composites with a well-designed discontinuity at the ply level can improve the SEA over 51% as compared to the unidirectional continuous tubes.