Compressive experiment and numerical simulation of 3D carbon/carbon composite open-hole plates

Experiments and finite element analysis were carried out for the problem of open-hole sensitivity of 3D carbon/carbon composite material plates. Finite element models of the representative volume element and open-hole plates of 3D carbon/carbon composite were established. Transition method between macro-level stress and meso-level stress was given, and numerical simulation on the compressive failure of open-hole plates was implemented based on this method. By uniaxial compressive tests of 3D carbon/carbon composite open-hole plates, good agreement between numerical results and experiments was observed. In addition, the influence of width-to-diameter ratio (WTDR) on the compressive strength was analyzed. The results show that the compressive strength of the WTDR-6 open-hole plate is larger than that of the WTDR-4 open-hole plate. It can be considered that the carbon/carbon composite plate is insensitive to the opening hole when the WTDR reaches to 6. And the result of the investigation provides insight into the design of carbon/carbon composite open-hole plates.