Experimental and numerical study on the tensile failure behavior of toughened-interlayer composite laminates with automated fiber placement (AFP) induced gap and overlap defects

Predictive computational modeling of the effect of automated fiber placement (AFP) defects on the structural performance of aerospace structural composites is of importance in preliminary design. A finite element method (FEM) based framework is presented for the analysis of the quasi-static tensile response of quasi-isotropic [45/0/ -?45/90]2s laminates containing controlled gaps and overlaps in the 90° plies with different defect sizes null...