Composites Science and Technology 56 (1996) 359-365
0 1996 Elsevier Science Limited
ELSEVIER 0266-3538(95)00113-l
STRENGTH DESIGN WITH 2-D TRIAXIAL
COMPOSITES
Lloyd V. Smith & Stephen R. Swanson*
Department of Mechanical Engineering,
Abstract
Textile preforms are currently being considered as a
possible means of reducing the cost of advanced fiber
composites. This paper presents a methodology for
strength design of carbon/epoxy 2-D braid fiber
composites under general conditions of biaxial stress
loading. A comprehensive investigation into the
in-plane strength properties of 2-D braids has been
carried out on tubular specimens of AS4/1895
carbon-fiber/epoxy composite made with the resin
transfer molding process. The biaxial loadings involved
both compression-compression and tension-tension
biaxial tests. The results show that prediction of failure
under biaxial loading conditions can be based on
procedures similar to those developed for laminates,
using critical strain values in the axial and braid
direction fibers, but with degraded strength properties
because of the undulating nature of the fiber paths. A
significant loss of strength is observed in the braid
directions.
Keywords: strength design, 2-D braid fiber compos-
ites, strength properties, biaxial stress loading
1 INTRODUCTION
Braided preforms are being considered, together with
composites with other textile forms, for structural
applications because of possible advantages in
through-the-thickness strength, increased damage
resistance, and cost savings from increased automation
in manufacturing. Braided materials would be
expected to exhibit some loss of in-plane strength
relative to conventional laminates, particularly in the
braid fibers because of the undulating fiber path.
However little detailed information has been available
to permit the assessment of trade-offs in properties.
The present work gives the results of an investigation
into the in-plane biaxial strength properties of 2-D
triaxially braided materials, manufactured in tubular
form by resin transfer molding (RTM).
The development of braiding as a technique for
advanced fiber composite structures has been
described in recent work.‘,’ Processing parameters
have been considered by Popper3 and Ko et al.4 The
* To whom correspondence should be addressed.
Printed in Northern Ireland. All rights reserved
0266-3538/96/$15.00
BRAID TEXTILE
University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah 84112, USA
development of stiffness models for textile materials
including braids has been considered by a number of
authors,5-‘1 and comparison of these models with
experimental results for braids has been given
previously.” Information on the strength properties of
textiles has been presented by Ishikawa and Chou,13
Ko,14 and by Crane and Camponeschi.”
The objective of the present work was to investigate
the biaxial strength properties of 2-D triaxial braid
materials. The need for biaxial strength properties is
clear, as even simple loadings produce multiaxial
stresses in the various fiber directions in a braid or a
laminate. However biaxial tests have proved to be
relatively difficult to perform on fiber composite
materials, because of experimental problems as-
sociated with stress concentrations in the specimen at
load introduction locations. Experimental specimens
and procedures have been developed in our
laboratory which are based on the use of tubular
specimens. An overview of the experimental tech-
niques used in previous tests on laminates is given
elsewhere.“j Results have been presented for
AS4/3.501-6 for quasi-isotropic laminatesI for [0,
*60] laminates,” for quasi-isotropic laminates tested
with loads at various angles to the fibers,” for
IM7/8.551-7,20 and three layups of T800/3900-2.21 This
previous work on laminates will help to put the
present results on braids into perspective. In the
present work, biaxial failure tests were carried out on
2-D triaxial braids with four different sets of
architectures, with experimental techniques similar to
those developed for laminates. Rules are developed so
that strength critical design can be carried out with the
braid materials.
2 EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURES
The preforms were braided and cured by using RTM
by Fiber Innovations, Norwood, MA, with AS4
carbon fiber and Shell 1895 resin. The specimens were
made with what is termed a 2-D regular triaxial braid.
This braid has axial yarns in addition to the braid
yarns at an angle of *:8 to the axial direction, as
illustrated in Fig. 1. The braiding parameters are listed
in Table 1. The specimens were all tubular, and in two
different sizes. The tubes used for the compression-
359
360 L. V. Smith, S. R. Swanson

Axial yam
/Braid yam
hial
t
1 Hoop
Fig. 1. Illustration of 2-D triaxial braid, with axial and &8
braid yams.
compression biaxial tests were of 51 mm internal
diameter, while those used for the tension-tension
biaxial tests were of 96 mm internal diameter. The
four architectures had as primary variables the
percentage of axial fibers, the yarn size, and the braid
angle. Only one parameter was changed between each
architecture. Although the architectures were in
general intended to be the same for the small and
large specimens, it can be seen from Table 1 that some
differences exist. The subscripts c and t for
compression and tension, respectively, are used to
denote these differences.
The biaxial compression tests were carried out using
external pressure and axial compression loading. The
specimens were jacketed, and placed inside a steel
cylinder to apply the fluid pressure. The biaxial
tension tests used internal pressure and axial load.
The tension specimen was modified from the
configuration used previously for laminates, to permit
higher axial load application with the thicker walled
specimens used at present.** This modification was
very successful in that the axial load required to fail
the specimens could be readily transmitted through
the end grips, and failures occurred at random
locations in the gage section of the specimen. It should
also be noted that although only compression-
compression and tension-tension tests were per-
formed because of a limited number of specimens
available, mixed tension-compression tests could have
been carried out using either the small or the large
specimens.
Strains were measured with large strain gages
mounted on the exterior surface of the specimens. As
will be discussed later, the strain distributions in
braided materials tend to be much more complicated
than usually seen in laminates, and spatial variations
exist with respect to the braid structure. Thus only
average strains were measured and reported. A study
to determine the gage size required to measure
average strains has been carried out previously.‘2
3 EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
The measured failure strains for the four braid
architectures are shown in Figs 2-5, based on data
reported previously. 23~24 Also shown in these figures is
a failure locus based on a maximum average in-plane
strain in either the axial or braid direction fibers. This
critical strain criterion has been shown in previous
work to correlate ultimate failure in fiber-dominated
laminates and loadings.‘7-21 As shown here, the
application to braided materials seems to be useful as
well. It should be noted that the strains used here are
the in-plane, average components, and thus differ
from the actual strain, particularly in the braid fibers.
The variation in strain within the material will be
discussed later. The strain values used in the failure
locus were measured in pure axial loading and pure
hoop loading to get the critical strains in the axial and
braid fibers. Different values were obtained for
tension and compression loadings.
The measured failure stresses are shown in Figs
6-9, along with the failure locus based on critical
strain values. The failure locus shown in these figures

Table 1. Description of the triaxial braid architectures

Braid code” Filament count Fixed yarns Braid angle Number of Number of Crimp angle
(% of total) (degrees) axial yarns plies (degrees)
Braider Fixed

A 12k 6k 15 45 36 5 10.2
B, 12k 30k 47 45 36 3 17.1
C, 6k 30k 46 70 36 3 22.5
D, 12k 66k 46 72 24 2 22.7
A, 12k 9k 20 47 72 4 14.5
B, 12k 27k 44 45 72 3 18.5
C, 6k 33k 45 73 36 5 7.7
D, 12k 54k 43 70 36 3 12.5

u Subscripts c and d indicate compression or tension specimen, respectively.

 Strength design with 2-D triaxial braid textile composites 361

-90.6 I -0.4I -0.2I 0I 0.2I 0.4I 0.61

Hoop Strain, % Hoop Strain, %

Fig. 2. Biaxial strain failure envelope for 2-D triaxial braid, Fig. 4. Biaxial strain failure envelope for 2-D triaxial braid,
architecture A. Line is prediction based on the maximum architecture C. Line is prediction based on the maximum
fiber direction strain failure criterion. fiber direction strain failure criterion.

0 Compression
0 Tension
-Strain Criterion
1
0 0
0 0
l-
0.5 -
E s
,g 0.5 - 0 0
.5 - o- 8 0’
z 0
In 5
o- m-o.5 - 0
I I D
3 2
_i;
-0.5 - -1

-11 I I I I I I 1 I I , I ,D , L
-2 -1.5 -1 -0.5 0 0.5 1 1.5 -1.5c
-0.8 -0.6 -0.4 -0.2 0 0.2 0.4 0.6
Hoop Strain, % Hoop Strain, %
Fig. 3. Biaxial strain failure envelope for 2-D triaxial braid,
architecture B. Line is prediction based on the maximum Fig. 5. Biaxial strain failure envelope for 2-D triaxial braid,
fiber direction strain failure criterion. architecture D. Line is prediction based on the maximum
fiber direction strain failure criterion.

was obtained from the critical strain values by using

the measured stress/strain response for each architec- were taken from the strain gages, and in a few cases
ture. To account for the differences in braid by extrapolation from the measured loads, due to
parameters between the compression and tension strain gage failure. The lines shown in these figures
specimen versions of each architecture, the failure are the averages of all of the tests that exhibited the
locus predominantly in the compression quadrant used specific failure mode, i.e. axial fiber failure in Fig. 10
the stress/strain values associated with the compres- and braid fiber failure in Fig. 11. There is a relatively
sion material, and similarly for the tension-tension large amount of scatter in the strain values for some of
quadrant, It is believed that these differences are the architectures. At least in part this has been
relatively small compared to the differences between correlated with variations in fiber paths observed in
architectures. photomicrographs of specimen cross-sections.z5
The failed specimens exhibited a failure mode that Further discussion of this is given below.
could be readily identified as failure of either the axial
fibers or the braid fibers, depending on the ratio of the
4 DISCUSSION
applied stresses. Some specimens exhibited failure in
both modes. These specimens had applied stresses A fundamental result of this investigation is that the
that corresponded very closely to the ‘corner’ of the use of critical in-plane fiber strain values appears to be
failure locus where a change in failure mode is quite useful in understanding the biaxial failure
predicted. properties of 2-D triaxial braids. Although this
The measured failure strains are shown in Figs 10 procedure has been shown in previous work to be
and 11 for the four braid architectures. These strains applicable to laminates,‘7-2’ the application to braids is
362 L. V. Smith, S. R. Swanson

0 Compression data o Compression data

o Tenslon data 0 Tension data
-Strain Criterion _

-600 1 ! ’ ’ ’ ’ ’ ’ 1
-200-150-100 -50 0 SO 100 150 200 -300 -200 -100 0 100 200 300
Hoop Stress, MPa Hoop Stress, MPa
Fig. 6. Biaxial stress failure envelope for 2-D triaxial braid, Fig. 8. Biaxial stress failure envelope for 2-D triaxial braid,
architecture A. Line is prediction based on the maximum architecture C. Line is prediction based on the maximum

ov”
fiber direction strain failure criterion. fiber direction strain failure criterion.

0 Compression data

Ku/
o Tension data
-Strain Criterion
600 I

g 200
E
E 0 0 u 00 00 0
v)
5 -200 5 -200
2 2
-400 -400

-600 : -600 2
-300 -200 - IO0 0 100 200 300 400 -200 -100 0 100 200 300
Hoop Stress, MPa Hoop Stress, MPa
Fig. 7. Biaxial stress failure envelope for 2-D triaxial braid, Fig. 9. Biaxial stress failure envelope for 2-D triaxial braid,
architecture B. Line is prediction based on the maximum architecture D. Line is prediction based on the maximum
fiber direction strain failure criterion. fiber direction strain failure criterion.

perhaps surprising. However the failure envelopes
based on the average, in-plane strain components
represent the material biaxial strength response quite
well.
The failure envelopes are a significant factor in
understanding the strength properties of 2-D triaxial
braids under biaxial loading. In general the strength
assessment can proceed as it would for a lamination.
As discussed elsewhere,‘* the stiffness properties of
braids can be predicted using modifications of classical
lamination theory to account for the through-the-
thickness components of the braid fibers. A stress
analysis of the braided structure can then be carried
out using techniques similar to those for laminates, i.e.
by considering the 2-D triaxial braid to be a [0, f 191,
laminate with the appropriately modified lamina
properties. The in-plane strains calculated from this
analysis can then be used directly in a failure analysis.
It must be noted, however, that the allowable or
critical strains must be measured from failure tests on
braided materials.
The failure strains used in constructing the failure
envelopes must be considered as empirical values, in
the sense that they were measured in tests of the braid
materials, and not on fiber tests apart from the braid
materials. It is clear in the case of the braid fibers, that
the actual strain in the braided fibers differs from the
average strain, because of strain concentrations
associated with the braid fiber path. Since the strain
concentrations might vary with braid architecture,
such as crimp angle (the average angle through-the-
thickness of the braid fiber), it would be expected that
the in-plane component of the braid strain at failure
would thus be a function of architecture. Clearly it
would be desirable to relate these in-plane strains to
actual fiber strains through an analysis of the
microstructure for each braid architecture.
A consideration of the failure strains given in Figs
10 and 11 shows the variation with architectural
parameters. In fact the variation between architec-
tures is not large with respect to the scatter, suggesting
that random effects are as important as architectural
 Strength design with 2-D triaxial braid textile composites 363

Also compressive ultimate strains have been shown to

depend on the type of laminate layup, as well as other
conditions.27,2R
The strength values measured in braid specimens
are somewhat lower than have been measured
previously in biaxial tests of laminates, one of the
reasons being the lower fiber volume fractions of the
braid specimens. In the present work the fiber volume
fractions were all very close to 0.50 for all of the
architectures, as compared to a typical value of 0.60
for laminates. This translates directly to a one-sixth
loss of strength and stiffness. The other reason is that
0 Uniaxial test l Biaxial test the failure strains in the braid specimens tend to be
lower than in laminates.
Fig. 10. Measured axial direction failure strain for all
specimens exhibiting an axial fiber failure mode in uniaxial The failure strains in the axial fibers of the braids
and biaxial tension and compression tests. were typically of the order of 1% for both tension and
compression, as shown in Figs 10 and 11. Typical
0.6 values in laminates of AS4/35014 are of the order of
1.4% in tension. The fiber failure strains in laminates
under compression are generally lower, but apparently
.E 0.2 vary with the layup and type of test. The lower failure
$
z 0
strains in the axial yarns in braids appear to be
2
.? associated with waviness in these yarns, and are
2 -0.2 influenced by the braiding parameters. For example, it
‘2
L
= -0.4 was noted by Smith and Swanson2’ that the axial
compression failure strains (using the 51 mm internal
-0.6 diameter cylinders) could be associated with the fiber
A B C D
Architecture
waviness observed in micrographic inspection of
cross-sections. The observed waviness was also
0 Uniaxid test l Biaxial test correlated with gaps in the braid yarn coverage that
permitted the axial yarns to migrate during processing.
Fig. 11. Measured braid direction failure strain for all
specimens exhibiting a braid fiber failure mode in uniaxial However the same correlations could not be observed
and biaxial tension and compression tests. in the tension specimens (using the 96 mm internal
diameter cylinders) although the axial yarns displayed
the lower failure strains described above.
differences. These random effects may be related to While the reduction in strength in the axial
fiber placement during braiding or fiber movement direction discussed above appears to be measurable
during RTM. Microscopic examination of specimen and real, a much larger reduction of strength in the
cross-sections showed evidence of irregular fiber braid material occurs in the braid direction yarns. The
paths. The data scatter also adds complication to the average, in-plane failure strain in the braid directions
comparisons of failure data and predicted failure typically ranges between 0.4 and 0.5% strain in both
envelopes shown in Figs 2-9. While the A, B, and D tension and compression. This is far below the 1.4%
architectures show quite good agreement, architecture value in tension typical of laminates, and also well
C does not agree as well, particularly in the below typical laminate compression values. Clearly
tension-tension data. As no explanation is available some loss of ultimate strain would be expected
as to why the architectures should differ in this because of the undulating fiber path of the braids.
respect, it is believed that the deviations between data However a loss of apparent strength of this magnitude
and failure criterion for architecture C are primarily in the braid fibers has not been well documented, and
due to data scatter. is potentially of significant importance in design. The
It clearly would be desirable to relate the measured lower ultimate strain values, combined with the lower
failure strains to more fundamental values, and thus fiber volume fraction, indicate reductions of strength
have a failure prediction that would hold for all braid in the braid direction of up to 70% relative to
architectures. However, in detail this goal has not laminates. Whether or not this is important in design
been achieved in full even for laminates. For example, depends on the application. For example, many
tension ultimate fiber strains in laminates with high structures have primarily axial loads with a much
toughness resins have been shown to be considerably lower loading in the transverse direction. In a case like
lower than is observed in unidirectional specimens.26 this, the lower transverse direction strengths con-
364 L. V. Smith, S. R. Swanson

trolled by the braid fibers may be of no consequence.

In any case, however, the low braid direction strengths
must be given due consideration.
The results of flat coupon tensile and compression
tests on braid architectures similar to those used in
this study have recently been published29 for the same
AS4 fiber and 1895 resin used in the present work.
The flat specimens were constructed by braiding over
a mandrel, and then slitting and laying the preform
flat for RTM. The architectures used were similar to
those used in the present study in that the braid angles
and percentage of axial fibers were the same, and the
I I 1 I 1
size of the fiber bundles followed the same trends, but -1’5 A (LSSY B (LLS) C (SLL) D (LLL)
were not identical due to the details of establishing braid architecture
braid patterns on different mandrel sizes. The Fig. 13. Comparison of present results for transverse (hoop)
measured failure strains in axial and transverse failure strain in transverse loading with results of flat coupon
tension and compression tests are shown compared tests of Minguet et a1.29
with the present values in Figs 12 and 13. It can be
seen that quite reasonable comparison exists between
the results of Minguet et af.29 and those obtained in strain variation is related to the variation in local
the present study. stiffness associated with the discrete axial yarns.3’
In general, the loss of strength in the braid yarns Thus the local peak strains in the braid fibers would
would be considered to be associated with the be higher than the average strains because of this
undulation in the fiber paths, and with the stress or inhomogeneity, in addition to the strain concentration
strain concentrations associated with this path. In associated with the fiber path undulation.
addition, the fiber direction is partially through-the-
thickness, so that for both reasons, the braid fiber
5 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS
strain would be higher than the in-plane component of
the strain. An additional factor must be considered, Biaxial tension-tension and compression-
however. This is the marked variation of the surface compression tests have been carried out on four
(in-plane) strain observed in braid materials. The architectures of 2-D triaxial braid tubular specimens.
results of recent measurements by moire fringe The results show that the failure properties could be
techniques3’ gave strain variations in the direction correlated by using critical failure strain values in the
transverse to the axial direction, for specimens loaded axial and braid direction fibers. The strength
in this transverse direction. These variations were assessment can then be carried out by procedures
large, giving a ratio of the maximum observed strain found useful for laminates in previous investigations.
to the average strain of 1.4 and l-8 for two different The braid materials exhibited lower strengths in the
yarn sizes, and were periodic with respect to the braid axial directions relative to laminates of similar fiber
structure. Models of the braid structure show that this and matrix materials, and particularly so in the braid
directions.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The support of this work by the NASA Langley
Research Center, under Grant No. NAG-1-1379, is
gratefully acknowledged.

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