An elastoplastic mechanical-thermal model for temperature rise simulation of two-dimensional triaxially braided composites under quasi-static loads

An elastoplastic mechanical-thermal model is proposed and applied to the mesoscale finite element simulation to investigate the temperature rise phenomena of braided composite materials under quasi-static monotonic loads. Tensile and compression tests of a carbon/epoxy triaxially braided composite were carried out, and an infrared camera was used to monitor the temperature variation of the specimens. The numerically predictions for mechanical-thermal responses and failure modes matched well with the experimental results, which illustrates the accuracy of the proposed constitutive model. In addition, the mechanism and controlling factors of temperature rise are numerically examined and found dissipated energy of fiber bundle fracture is the major source.