Zainab Jasim Mahmood

Composite materials have long been in great demand for industrial purposes, particularly in the field of lightweight automobile and aircraft applications. The theory of numerical analysis provides a useful account of how Fibre-reinforced composites can be developed to prevent failure analyses and produce new composite materials. Therefore, to get an advantage from this theory, an effort has been made in this research. A systematic, Multi-stage algorithm based on MATLAB software was established to generate a code that can manipulate data of tensile and flexural tests for composite materials made from glass fibre epoxy composites (GF/Ep) and carbon fibre epoxy composites (CF/Ep). The current numerical framework was implemented using suggested code to handle data from stress-strain curves and predict ultimate strength, strain, and fracture toughness values, undergoing a validation process. The key findings were the GF/Ep-based composite showed better strain failure and an energy absorption value of 12.3 MJ/m³/and 7.0 MJ/m³ in tension and flexure, respectively. This is suggested to have better performance in fracture toughness. Furthermore, the outcome results also showed that on GF/Ep, it is less stiff, with a value of 21.3 GPa and a bending failure value of 400 MPa.

Fiber-reinforced composites (FRCs) are among the most widely used materials in modern engineering applications due to their high mechanical properties and light weight. The current study involved a numerical investigation conducted through experimental a validation process using ANSYS Workbench R18.0 to evaluate the mechanical behavior and failure mechanism of (Carbon/Epoxy UD Prepreg). The modelling process was initiated using ACP-PRE to crate four types of laminate structures: balanced cross ply, symmetric, and random. The current model demonstrated an acceptable range of reliability and accuracy to investigate different laminate structures, with a validation error percentage of less than 8% and 13% for both static and explicit analysis. From the study, it has been concluded that the cross-ply layer structure has the highest ultimate stress, reaching 1911.2 MPa, while the random laminate structure has almost 80% in tensile strength reduction. A 700 MPa ultimate tensile stress was obtained for the cross-ply type, although the balanced laminate exhibited a weaker load response, 30 % lower than the cross-ply. Moreover, the laminate configuration of cross-ply stands as the best option in terms of reverse factor, which indicates a value of 6.7, and the highest energy of strain reached 1.5123 with 46% higher safety margin. As a result, this configuration is suggested to be the best combination and capability for the safety structure and energy absorption. These findings highlight the critical role of ply arrangement in enhancing the mechanical integrity of composite structures and support the need for deliberate design strategies in laminate engineering. Moreover, the current paper suggests ACP Pre (Advanced Composite Pre-processor) as an effective tool for simulating composite materials with layered structures.