Tensile Behaviour of Multilayer Knitted Fabric Composites with Different Stacking Configuration

In this paper, multilayer plain weft knitted glass fabric reinforced epoxy composite laminates with different stacking configurations, i.e., [0°]4, [0°/±45°/0°], [0°/90°/90°/0°] and [90°]4, were investigated experimentally. The laminates were uniaxially tensile loaded until final fractures occurred. The experimental results show that with the change in layer stacking structure, a corresponding variation in composite strength and stiffness was achieved. The tensile strength and modulus rank as follows: [0°]4 > [0°/±45°/0°] > [0°/90°/90°/0°] > [90°]4, which implicates a potential desiguability of Knitted Fabric Composites (KFC) for engineering applications. Failure behaviours of the fractured laminate specimens were examined using a ‘matrix digestion and layer peeling’ method, based on which the behaviour of each lamina in the laminate can be clearly shown. It was found that an angle-plied lamina in the laminate when subjected to a uniaxial tensile load has a different fracture mode from that of a single ply composite under an off-axial tensile load. This means that the lamina in the laminate is subjected to a more complicated load combination. By comparing the fractured mode of the latter lamina with that of the single ply composite, the load direction sustained by the lamina in the laminate can be identified, which provides a qualitative benchmark for verifying a theoretical simulation.