Investigation of tensile and in-plane shear properties of carbon fiber reinforced composites with and without piezoelectric patches for micro-crack propagation using extended finite element method

The smart materials are capable to integrate the remarkabale active functions into a traditional structure of the composites. There is a wide research possibility towards the embedded patches into a composite primary structure. This particular study aims to investigate the effect of the embedded smart materials in a conventional composite laminate. Carbon fiber reinforced composite (CFRC) specimens with and without PZT piezo elements embedded in the structure are studied for Tensile, In-plane Shear and three point bending properties. Previously researched mechanical behaviour and the operational influence of the piezo sensors are sequentially analysed, particularly for the electric capacitance during all the categories of testing. The limitations have also been studied into the comparison of the structure with and without the piezoelectric material patches. The extended finite element (XFEM) modelling approach has been applied to study the sensorized damage model for the numerical and experimental study. This study also presents simplified and understandable techniques and offers a new direction for the experimental and computational modelling design for the progressive damage, based on the principles of extended finite element method (XFEM). The extensive experimentation and numerical modelling for interlaminar and intralaminar crack of CFRCs materials are studied, with and without piezoelectric patches. The experiments and simulations are designed and grouped into categories of load, boundary conditions and types arranged accordingly for fracture, delamination, fiber breakage and matrix crack towards the damage evolution. The dimensions of the specimens and the effects are also studied regarding lengths, thickness and width in multiple categories. The loading cases of tension and the inplane shear are studied for multiple cases for numerical as well as experimental investigation having different orientations and dimensions. The delaminated and fractured mode I and mode II specimen were analysed for the expected and the real time values of strength to figure out the precise values of trends to predict the composite properties.