Mechanical responses and damage morphology of laminated fabrics with a central slit under uniaxial tension: A comparison between analytical and experimental results

•A new analytical model is proposed to evaluate the tearing strength of laminated fabrics.•Tearing mechanism of laminated fabrics with a central slit is investigated.•Results are useful for simulating material tearing behaviors and for achieving structural safety assessment.

This paper reports the central slit tearing behaviors of laminated fabrics for airships from experimental investigation and analytical models. First, central slit tearing behaviors of laminated fabrics with different tear lengths were tested to obtain tearing stress–displacement curves and damage morphology. Then, an analytical model was established to simulate the central slit tearing behaviors of laminated fabrics. In the model, a new concept of equivalent yarn was introduced to simplify the model parameters, and an exponential stress distribution was used to refine the stress distribution in the vicinity of tear tips. The yarn stresses can be calculated to derive the tearing strength at different tearing displacements. Finally, the model was validated due to the high similarity between the calculated and experimental results. The breaking strain and elastic modulus of the yarns as well as the weaving density of the fabric were found to be the key factors affecting the tearing strength.

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