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a b s t r a c tThis paper focuses on natural silk/epoxy composite square tubes energy absorption and failure response. The tested specimens were featured by a material combination of different lengths and same numbers of natural silk/epoxy composite layers in form of reinforced woven fabric in thermosetting epoxy resin. Tubes were compressed in INSTRON 5567 with a loading capacity of 30 kN. This research investigates the influence of the wall lengths on the compressive response and also failure mode of the tested tubes are analysed. The load-displacement behaviour of square tubes recorded during the test. Since natural woven silk has been used as textile in centuries but due to rare study of this fabric as reinforcement material for composites, the results of this paper can be considerable. Outcomes from this paper might be helpful to guide the design of crashworthy structures.

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A new approach for biaxial loading of fibre reinforced composites is presented, based on the use of a Modified Arcan Fixture (MAF). In addition to combined tension-shear loading which can be achieved using a conventional Arcan fixture, the MAF allows the application of pure compression and compression-shear loading. Digital Image Correlation is used to obtain the full-field deformations of the specimens to establish the load response and failure behaviour for a range of multiaxial stress-strain states. The approach is demonstrated on glass/epoxy prepreg laminates. For unidirectional matrix dominated laminate it is shown that the failure envelope is described accurately by Puck's inter-fibre failure theory. For the multidirectional matrix-dominated laminate it is shown that the in-situ strength is much greater than that predicted using the unidirectional properties. The potential of the MAF for characterisation over the entire combined tension-shear and compression-shear domains using a single fixture is demonstrated.

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