Experimental study of thickness-tapered unidirectional composite compression specimens

Various untabbed, thickness-tapered compression specimen geometries were studied experimentally. Both shear-loaded and end-loaded compression test methods were used to measure the strength and stiffness of carbon/epoxy and glass/epoxy unidirectional composite material systems. The compressive strength was found to be strongly dependent on specimen geometry, loading conditions, and the cracks that initiated in the taper regions and propagated to various lengths prior to catastrophic failure. A specific thickness-tapered specimen geometry that produced compressive strengths significantly higher than conventional specimen configurations resulted from the experimental optimization process. A method of determining compressive strains, and thus the compressive modulus, using this same specimen geometry and strain gages was also demonstrated.