Experimental and computational investigation of progressive damage accumulation in CFRP composites

This manuscript presents an experimental and computational study of progressive damage accumulation in carbon fiber reinforced polymers. A series of monotonic tension experiments with acoustic emission, X-ray radiography, and X-ray computed tomography were performed on a quasi-isotropic layup to ascertain the initiation, progression, and modes of damage accumulation under tensile loading. A multiscale computational model was used to aid in understanding the progressive damage accumulation. The eigendeformation based reduced order homogenization modeling approach was used due to its computational efficiency and its ability to incorporate distinct damage modes. The combined experimental and computational investigation provided a detailed picture of the progression of damage accumulation in the CFRP composite. The multiscale model predictions were in good agreement with experimental observations.