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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]

Spatial variability of tensile strength, widely existing in concrete gravity dams due to the influence of long construction period and heterogeneous construction quality, has a profound impact on the nonlinear behaviour of structures. In this paper, a method to simulate the random field of the tensile strength of concrete gravity dams based on the random field theory is proposed. A typical non-overflow dam section of the Guandi gravity dam is taken as an example, artificial seismic waves with similar response spectra and natural seismic waves with different magnitudes are selected for the comparative analysis. Based on the concrete damage plasticity (CDP) model and incremental dynamic analysis (IDA) method, the damage characteristics, failure modes, probability density evolution processes, and fragility curves obtained from gravity dams with homogenous and random fields of tensile strength are compared with each other. The differences among waves and realisations of random fields are also investigated. It is seen that the spatial variability of tensile strength aggravates the damage degree, decreases the continuity of local damaged areas, and increased the failure probability of global dams. It reveals that the random characteristics affect the dams' nonlinear behaviour directly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Difference of damage modes caused by the boundary conditions of primary load-bearing yarns. • Straightening effect of braided yarns with undulations under low-velocity impact. • Variation of off-axial angles leading to the transition of failure modes. The sensitivity of off-axial angle on impact response was investigated by experimental and numerical methods in this work. Three types of braided laminates with different on/off-axial angles in terms of OA00, OA225 and OA45 were prepared and low-velocity impact tests with various energy levels were performed. Meso-level finite element model (FEM) was also developed to reveal impact damage initiation and development. We discovered that the boundary condition of primary load-bearing yarns depending on the off-axial angles caused the difference of structural deformation and stress distribution of braiding yarns during impact process. Due to the restriction of the pressurized tips, the straightening effect of primary load-bearing yarns with heavy waviness caused its out-of-plane movement and related main cracks in OA00 specimen. In addition, the matrix resin cracks were found at the edge of the specimen because of in-plane shear movement of braiding yarns. As for OA45 specimen, more evident bending deformation was observed, resulting in elevated tensile stress of braiding yarns on non-impact side. The variation of off-axial angle from 0 to 45 degree led to the failure mode transforming from the extensive matrix damage on specimen edge to the severe fiber breakage on non-impact side. As a medium off-axial angle, OA225 specimen exhibited a mixture failure mode to resist impact and achieved excellent performance with respect to higher peak force and delayed load dropping. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The structural hybridization effect on low-velocity impact response of braided/unidirectional (UD) laminates was investigates. • Continuum shell finite element models based on the anisotropic constitutive relationship of braided and UD plies were established to reveal the damage onset and propagation. • The extensive delamination formed rapidly when impacted on the fabric side. • The damage characterized by severe fiber breakage occurs at the impact site when impacted on UD ply side. This work investigated the structural hybridization effect on the low-velocity impact response of braided/unidirectional(UD) laminate. Two groups of hybridization laminates, namely interleaving and clustering groups, were manufactured. The impact performance of the specimens was characterized by combining dropping testbench, optical camera and ultra-sound detector. A continuum shell finite element model was established to reveal the progressive damage behavior of hybridization laminate. The specimen in the interleaving group presented overwhelming performance than that in the clustering group. The impact side effect on failure modes was discussed in detail. When impacted on the braided fabric side, extensive delamination formed on the edge of the specimen due to bending deformation. It further resulted in-plane crushing failure of UD sub-laminate. In contrast, severe fiber breakage occurs at the impact site due to combination stress of tensile and shear when impacted on UD side. Therefore, the fabric-impacted specimen exhibits better impact resistance than that impacted on UD side with respect to higher peak load and lower absorbed energy. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Air flow heating without tank is reliable and effective for drastic impact loads. • Mechanics of woven CF/PEEK is more sensitive to temperature than strain rate. • Ultimate service temperature significantly influences impact dynamic behavior. • Brittle-Loose transition of damage modes were found from glassy to high-elastic state. • Failure modes at high temperature were verified by micro-scale characterization. A reliable hot air-flow heating approach is creatively carried out for high strain rate tests without environment tank. The out-of-plane and in-plane compression of carbon fiber reinforced polyetheretherketone (CF/PEEK) woven composites are investigated from 400 to 4000/s at the glassy state and high-elastic state. The real-time and in-situ deformation and failure process of the composite specimens under the extreme thermo-mechanical loads are successfully captured, which can reflect the impact dynamic behavior of the material near the ultimate service temperature. Empirical laws for mechanical index of the woven composites are given. The results reveal that the thermal softening effect outperforms the strain-rate strengthening effect. For out-of-plane impact at low strain rates, damage mode transitions from the interface and matrix cracking at glassy state to the "parallel" shear and fiber extrusion at high-elastic state. Under high strain rates, it reveals the "fragmented" shear mode at glassy state. For in-plane impact, the temperature effect leads to the failure mode changing from the delamination and local shear to the mixed feature of kinking bands, delamination, and multiple-band shear with "bulge" behavior. And the multiple-band shear and delamination are more likely to occur along the in-plane direction as the strain rate increased. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two-dimensional triaxial braided composite (2DTBC) often fails by external force from different directions in service. In this work, the in-plane compression failure mechanism of 2DTBC was studied along the axial (0°), off-axial (±60°) and perpendicular (90°) directions at quasi-static and high strain rate. The progressive failure process was recorded by infrared thermography with the final morphology using computer tomography technology. A three-dimensional mesoscale finite element model was established to simulate the initiation, accumulation and propagation of various damages. The results show that the in-plane compression strength, strain, energy absorption and failure mode of 2DTBC depends on whether there are main load-bearing (axial or braided) yarns directly transferring stress along load directions. The occurrence and development of localized damages can be captured by high-speed IR thermography and verified by final morphology. The in-plane failure mechanism of 2DTBC is induced by different dominating factors under different load directions, such as the out-of-plane movement of braided yarns, kinking effect at crimp positions, structure antisymmetry effect, buckling and shear instability. • Effect of main load-bearing (axial or braided) yarns during the in-plane compression. • Occurrence and development of damages captured by high-speed IR thermography. • Effect of yarns out-of-plane movement, kinking, buckling and shear instability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Integral braiding and near-net forming of CFRP and CFRP/Al hybrid composite tubes. • In-situ and real-time failure mode analysis of CFRP and CFRP/Al composite tube under transverse impact. • Comprehensive effect of braiding angle, locailzed temperature rise, and ductile aluminum on the damage mechanism. High-speed infrared thermography, micro-CT characterization and full-scale mesostructural simulation were jointly applied to reveal the impact deformation and damage mechanism of composite tubes. Two different failure modes, namely the Impact Side Dominated (ISD) and Impact-/Non-impact Side (INIS), were found to have relation with the braiding angle and localized temperature rise. The hybrid effect can not only prevent resin fragmentation in the triangle region at the lateral side and the diamond region at the non-impact side, but also inhibit the CFRP damage development at the lateral and non-impact side. In small-angle braided tube, the impact-side rebound trend of CFRP layer leads to mismatch at the CFRP-Al interface, which results in opening delamination. In large-angle braided tube, the non-impact-side damage plays an important role in further load-bearing capacity. Apart from the structure effect, temperature rise has an effect on composite damage mode by degrading the localized matrix stiffness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]