FLEXURAL BEHAVIOUR OF ANISOTROPIC COMPOSITE DISCS SUBJECTED TO THREE-POINT SUPPORT BENDING TESTS

In this work, discs supported on three points were loaded at the centre to determine the flexural stiffness of composites produced from a Sheet Molding Compound (SMC/C-R) and a Carbon/Polycarbonate (C/PC) towpreg using different laminate stacking sequences. In this loading condition, the experimental results show that the flexural behaviour of the composites depends on several factors, such as fibre orientation, laminate stacking, surface waviness and moulding temperature. The experimental results were compared with those obtained from the finite element program Algor. The FEM analysis has shown to be a useful tool to describe the fibre orientation and the laminate stacking sequence in the composite. However, differences up to 13% were found between the experimental and simulated values obtained for the composite flexural stiffness.