Micromechanical Modeling of Composite Compressive Strength

Composite compressive failure is studied using a micromechanical (beam-on-elastic foundation) model, and the stiffness of the foundation is determined through an elasticity solution of the foundation model problem. An explicit expression has been derived for evaluation of composite longitudinal compressive strengths (CLCS). It is found that this expression predicts relatively lower CLCS compared to classical models, and closely matches some experimental data for carbon fiber/epoxy composites. It is found that a complete matrix slippage will reduce the CLCS by over 50%.