The study of hybrid composite plates under transverse sinusoidal load using ANSYS

Abstract Composite materials have been widely used in many applications but understanding their failure behavior is always challenging. For years, numerical investigation has been the effective alternative, even though the underlying theories related to composite materials are complicated. This study aims to investigate the improved strength of hybridization by comparing the failure behavior of glass-epoxy composite laminate and hybrid glass-graphite-epoxy laminate under transverse sinusoidal load. The composite and hybrid composite laminates with various aspect ratios were modelled using ANSYS. The plates were simply supported and transverse sinusoidal load were applied until failure occurs. Initially, numerical validation was performed and the simulated results are found to be close to the 3D elasticity analytical results. In general, most simulated parameters produced error less than 2% and thus proving the reliability of the finite element models and implementation. The first ply failure (FPF) and last ply failure (LPF) curves were plotted to compare the failure trend of glass-epoxy composite laminate and its hybrid laminate. The results showed no significant difference in the FPF trend but hybridization could withstand up to 80% more normalized load in terms of the LPF. In conclusion, the present study has shed new knowledge about the failure behavior of hybrid laminate and thus, this knowledge could be applied in designing hybrid composite laminates.