TITLE:
Towards Reliability-Enhanced Mechanical Characterization of Non-Crimp Fabrics: How to Compare Two Force-Displacement Curves against a Null Material Hypothesis
AUTHORS:
Samia Sultana, Armin Rashidi, Mohammad Islam, Bryn Crawford, Abbas S. Milani
KEYWORDS:
Textile Composites, Material Characterization, Statistical Methods
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Composite Materials,
Vol.9 No.2,
April
15,
2019
ABSTRACT: Detailed characterization of fabric reinforcements
is necessary to ensure the quality of manufactured composite parts, and
subsequently to prevent structural failure during service. A lack of consensus
and standardization exists in selecting test methods for the mechanical
characterization of fabrics. Moreover, in reality, during any experimentation there are sources of
uncertainties which may result in inconsistencies in the interpretation of data
and the comparison of different testing methods. The aim of this article is to
show how simple statistical data analysis methods may be used to enhance the
characterization of composite fabrics under individual and combined loading
modes while accounting for inherent material/test uncertainties. Results using
a typical glass non-crimp fabric (NCF) show that, statistically, there are
significant differences between the warp and weft direction responses of a
presumably balanced NCF under all deformation modes, with weft yarns being
generally stiffer. Moreover, the statistical significance of warp-weft couplings
under both simultaneous and sequential biaxial-shear loading modes became
statistically evident, when compared to a pure biaxial deformation.