Deformation and Flow Characterization of Hybrid Woven Composite Material

Woven and textile composite materials exhibit a highly inhomogeneous deformation field with the complex interaction between the deformation and failure mechanisms, which controls the structure-level specific absorption energy. This work attempts to provide insight into the deformation, flow, and post-peak characteristics of hybrid weave composite materials by examining the deformation characteristics of off-axis loading of a woven laminate. Full-field displacement measurements by digital image correlations (DIC) and global coordinate axial strains by non-contact video extensometer were employed. We proposed to utilize the measured incremental plastic strain field over the reduced Moher strain plane to highlight the material non-associative deformation, flow characteristics, and the kinematics of shear band formations and their relation to the macroscopic homogenized flow response of the material. We noticed that the weave periodicity imposes an additional microstructure length scale that requires 4–6 periods to accommodate a localized failure band. The macroscopically measured mechanical properties and the observed cell-level deformation mechanisms will support the development of constitutive input parameters for the deformation and flow characterization of user-material subroutines.