Thermo-Elastic Response of Laminated Plates Under Thermo-Mechanical Coupling Loads

Abstract

This study investigates the response of fiber-reinforced epoxy composites under thermo-mechanical coupling load conditions. The holding temperature, holding time, and specimen thickness were utilized as variables to design an experimental plan, and various specimens were prepared. A heat gun was employed to supply thermo-mechanical coupling loads onto the specimens, while a thermal imaging system and a digital image correlation machine were utilized to monitor the temperature and strain distributions on the surface of the specimens throughout the process. The thermo-mechanical loads exerted by the heat gun were modeled with the Gaussian methods, and an FE model was established to confirm the accuracy of the heat gun model. Response surface analysis and the changes in the coefficients of thermal conductivities (CTCs) revealed that, among the three variables, the thickness of the specimen had the most significant impact on both the hardness and thermoelastic response, with F-values of 4.16 and 233.05, respectively. The results indicate that with an increase in the thickness of specimens, both hardness and thermoelastic response are significantly improved. In addition, when the thickness is increased by 0.5 mm, the CTC ratio in the x and y directions increased by 32% and 44.4%, respectively.