Determination of transverse compressive strength of long fibre composites by three-point bending of [90m/0n] cross-ply laminated strips

A new test configuration is proposed for measuring transverse compressive strength of unidirectional composite laminates by three-point bending. A cross-ply configuration [90m/0n] has been chosen in order to get failure due to transverse compressive stresses. Thermal and mechanical stresses have been calculated based on hypotheses of classical beam theory. The optimal cross-ply configuration has been obtained by maximizing the ratio between maximum compressive stresses at the 90° layer and maximum tensile stresses at the 0° layer. Cross-ply carbon/epoxy strips with different thicknesses have been tested in three-point bending until failure. The appearance of the transverse compressive damage has been found to agree well with that found in the literature for end-loaded compression tests.