On the mechanical behaviour of a butt jointed thermoplastic composite under bending

In the present work, the mechanical behavior of a recently developed novel butt jointed thermoplastic composite was investigated under bending conditions. The laminated skin and the web were made of carbon fiber (AS4) and polyetherketoneketone (PEKK). The butt joint (filler) was injection molded from 20% short carbon fiber filled with PEKK thermoplastic. The skin and web were co-consolidated together with the butt joint in the form of a hybrid T-shaped structure. A three point bending (3 PB) set-up was used to investigate the mechanical response of the hybrid composite. The crack initiation and propagation mechanisms for the filler and the delamination at the skin-filler interface were captured using a high speed camera. It was found from the experimental observations that the crack initiated in the filler and then propagated towards the skin-filler interface. A numerical model was also developed using the finite element method in ABAQUS including the crack initiation and growth in the filler together with the delamination at the skin-filler interface. For this purpose the virtual crack closure technique (VCCT) was employed for the crack growth in the filler and the traction separation law was applied at the skin-filler interface using a cohesive surface. The residual stresses and deformations coming from the co-consolidation process were predicted by applying a thermal load and taken into account in the quasi-static analysis. A good agreement was found between the predicted and measured force-displacement curves. The developed numerical model was further employed to address the crack initiation and growth in the filler and delamination at the skin-filler interface using the mix mode effective fracture energies. A linear elastic behavior was found in the structure until the crack initiation in the filler.