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The failure mode is a dominant factor of mechanical performance of braided composite tube subjected to axial compression. The failure mode was modified by tailoring stack-up sequence of composite tubes hybridized by bi/tri-axial braided laminate. The thermal photographing and micro-CT scanning methods were employed to monitor the in-situ damage progression and post-mortem specimen, respectively. The results show that the delamination was easy to be induced at the interface nearby tri-axial braided laminate. It attributes to the combination between the crack caused by local buckling of the axial yarns and the crack caused by shear deformation of braiding yarns. By the illumination of this behavior, delamination is controlled to occur at the different position along thickness direction of braided tube by adjusting the stacking sequence of braided laminates. When delamination position transfer from the inner/outer sides to the middle of tube wall, the failure mode transfer from the progressive folding to splaying, which increase the specific energy absorption by 45.77%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The usage of correlation between maximum temperature and peak load. • The reconstruction of CT images identifies the debonding distribution and degree. • A novel inspection way of combing infrared imaging and micro CT reconstruction methods. • The role of axial yarns in axial crushing. In this work, the effect of axial yarns on damage behavior of two-dimensional triaxially braided composite(2DTBC) tubes subjected to axial compression was investigated. A novel damage detection method combining infrared thermography and CT scanning was presented. In the area without axial yarns, yarn crossovers were separated from each other due to interlacing patterns. Axial compression caused the braiding yarns to shear deformation like scissors. Inter-yarn de-bonding appeared in crossovers and could not connect. Consequently, it caused a progressively folding failure mode. In contrast, local buckling occurred on axial yarns because of their primary loading behavior. Cracks along the axial yarns formed, which would combine with debonding crossovers caused by the sheared braiding yarn. It resulted in significant inter-layer delamination and consequently splaying failure mode. The energy absorption of composites tube with 18 axial yarns increased by 79.9% at the cost of 27.8% fiber usage more than 3 axial yarns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The delamination damage distribution induced by multi-impact was identified. • The sensitivity of axial compression performance to impact damage was studied. • Proposed FE model provided accurate predication for CAI scenario of braided tube. In this study, damage behaviors and residual crashworthiness characteristics of braided composite tube with transverse pre-impact damages subjected to axial compression were investigated by experimental and numerical methods. The compression tests were conducted on intact, single impact and repeated impact tubes at identical, adjacent and opposite positions to analyze the effects of impact damages. A multi-step finite element model considering the progressive damage characteristics was developed in ABAQUS/Explicit to predict the failure behaviors of braided tube. It was found that the damage behavior and residual performance of braided tube subjected to axial compression were dominated by impact induced delamination distribution with respect to area and position. A relatively small delamination area induced by single impact resulted in similar progressive folding damage mode and energy absorption capacity as in intact tube. For repeated impact, delamination with increased area at identical position leaded to local buckling damage mode, while small delamination areas distributed at adjacent and opposite positions caused U-shape and W-shape fracturing damage modes, respectively. Consequently, the transformation of damage mode resulted in significantly reduced residual crashworthiness characteristics in repeated impact tubes compared to intact and single impact tubes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Braided composite laminates allow a reinforcement architecture design method of varying ply-to-ply braided structure instead of rotating fiber orientation in traditional unidirectional laminates. The stacking sequence sensitivities of braided laminates subjected to low-velocity impact were experimentally studied. Uniform ([±45° 6 ]) and non-uniform ([±30° 2 /±45° 2 /±60° 2 ]) architectures were designed to evaluate the effect of braided structure on impact performance. In addition, non-uniform laminate was impacted on both sides to identify the role of impact side on the failure mode. Quasi-static indentation was conducted to understand the damage initiation and propagation of braided laminates. The experimental results show that braided ply with high crimp level in impact side induced the main cracks along the load-carrying yarn, causing that the laminate failed in a kink-band dominated mode. For braided ply with low crimp level, a micro-buckling damage was found in the impact side, leading to the delamination dominated failure mode. It was also found that uniform braided laminate presents inferior impact resistance with respect to lower peak load and more concentrated damage because the kink-band can propagate into the specimen along braiding yarn easily. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]