Investigation into failure of laminated composite T-piece specimens under bending loading

This paper presents an experimental and numerical investigation into failure of T-shaped laminated composite structures. Three out-of-plane bending cases with loads at angles of 0°, 45° and 90° are studied. It is found that very high free-edge maximum principal transverse tensile stresses perpendicular to the fibre direction occur at the failure locations. The use of the “High Stress Concentration method” demonstrates that these are responsible for the specimens' failure. It is also demonstrated that this tool is very useful for stress engineers who mainly rely on linear elastic analyses to design complex laminated composite components.