Simulation of the Hybrid Carbon-Aramid Composite Materials Based on Mechanical Characterization by Digital Image Correlation Method

As hybrid carbon-aramid composites become widely used in various industries, it has become imperative to mechanically characterize them using accurate methods of measuring the entire deformation field such as the digital image correlation (DIC) method. The accuracy of the numerical simulation of carbon-aramid composite structures depends on the accuracy of the elastic constants. Therefore, the goal of this research is to model and simulate the mechanical behaviour of the composite based on epoxy resin reinforced with carbon-aramid woven fabric by considering the mechanical properties investigated by tensile test combined with DIC and the bending test. The curves of the transverse strains related to the longitudinal strains were investigated using DIC in order to determine the Poisson’s ratios in the case of tensile tests applied in warp or weft directions of the reinforcement fabric. The impact strength determined by Charpy tests is also reported. The other main objective is to use the analytical models to compute the tensile and flexural moduli of elasticity for the fictitious orthotropic materials which behave similarly to the carbon-aramid composite investigated. The simulations regarding the behaviour of the carbon-aramid composite in tensile and bending tests were validated by the experimental results, since the maximum errors recorded between experimental and theoretical results were 0.19% and 0.15% for the equivalent tensile modulus and for the equivalent flexural modulus, respectively.