Recent improvements in pultrusion and filament winding have allowed the manufacturing of spirals and rings composite profiles for applications such as fuselage reinforcements of small aircrafts, automotive bumper beams, automotive springs and structural reinforcement for pipes. However, the behavior of curved carbon fiber components is complex and hard to predict, and still demands deeper understanding. In this work, progressive damage and cohesive zone numerical models were used to simulate the behavior of unidirectional curved composite structures under flexural loading. Four-point bending tests were carried out on curved samples monitored by strain gages for model validation. The results have demonstrated a strong influence of delamination on samples with well-defined resin-rich areas. In contrast, curved structures with more homogeneous fiber distribution, i.e. those manufactured by curved pultrusion, showed increased flexural strength. Maximum stresses from numerical and experimental analyses were compared and the maximum difference found was below 3.5%.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.