Thermo-mechanical behaviour of plain weave fabric composites: Experimental investigations

An experimental investigation has been performed to elucidate the on-axes thermo-mechanical behaviour of two-dimensional orthogonal plain weave fabric laminates. Specifically T-300 carbon/epoxy and E-glass/epoxy systems were investigated for Young's modulus, inplane shear modulus, Poisson's ratio, linear thermal expansion coefficient, tensile strength and inplane shear strength. It is observed that there is a significant effect of weave geometrical parameters on the thermo-mechanical behaviour of woven fabric laminates. Properties of the woven fabric laminates are compared with the properties of the corresponding unidirectional balanced sym metric crossply laminates. A good correlation is observed between the experimental results and analytical predictions.