Abstract: Two fracture locations were normally observed on the tensile specimens when polymer matrix 3D-woven composites were tested under uniaxial tension. Moreover, one of the fracture locations was mostly at the gripping area and appeared to be compressive failure. With the use of explicit FEA and stress wave theory, the displacement and strain of the specimen after failure were studied. The result shows that the compressive strain caused by the stress wave at the gripping area was higher than the static compressive failure strain, which caused the fracture at the gripping area. This result provides insight into the failure mode discovered when using ASTM D3039 standard for obtaining the tensile properties of polymer matrix 3D-woven composites.

Key words: 3D-woven, composite, tensile, failure mode