Tensile behaviors of co-woven-knitted fabric reinforced composites under various strain rates

This article reports the tensile behaviors of a novel kind of 3D textile composite, named as co-woven-knitted fabric (CWKF) reinforced composite, under quasi-static and high strain rates. The tensile tests were conducted along the warp direction (0°), bias direction (45°), and weft direction (90°) at quasi-static strain rate of 0.001/s and high strain rates ranging from 1589/s to 2586/s. The results indicate that the tensile strength, failure strain, tensile stiffness, energy absorption, and resilient energy are strain rate sensitive along all the three directions. The relationships between the mechanical parameters and the strain rate were also analyzed. The fractograph of the CWKF composite demonstrate that the tensile failure modes are matrix shear failure and fibers breakage under the quasi-static testing condition while interface failure and fibers pullout are at high strain rates.