Mechanical behavior between carbon fiber and epoxy matrix for thin adhesive layers

Abstract

Fiber/matrix adhesions are most likely to control the overall mechanical behavior of fiber-reinforced composite materials. In this work, non-linear mechanical behaviors have been evaluated for a thin intermediate layer for plane stress case, which can be considered to be the adhesive elasto-plastic epoxy matrix. The adhesive which is the intermediate layer situated between two carbon fibers is assumed to be very small in thickness in comparison with those of the surrounding materials. Verification with the numerical simulation based on finite element method (FEM) has shown high accuracy of the derived formulations.