ON THE BUCKLING KINKING COMPRESSIVE FAILURE OF FIBROUS COMPOSITES

In this paper, it is demonstrated that the compressive response of unidirectionally reinforced composites may initiate in a micro-buckling mode and subsequently switch to a micro-kinked configuration. The foregoing possibility derives from a mechanics model that considers initial fiber misalignments, a non-linear shear response of the matrix, shear deformable fibers, and stochastic fiber spacings. The last-mentioned non-uniformity in fiber spacings plays a major role in the generation of fiber kinks. Various features of the compressive deformation and failure process are exhibited by computational examples.