Study of composite beams in asymmetric four-point bending

This article deals with the numerical study of composite beams in asymmetric four-point bending and the comparison of the induced results with experimental and numerical results. The measurement of the interlaminar shear strength of composite beams, an important design variable in many applications, may be suc-cessfully performed by the recently established asymmetric off-axis bending test. In order to obtain experimental results, specimens had been produced and tested to failure. A linear FEA is adopted throughout the composite beams to obtain the stress distributions in the beams and especially at the loading points and the supports where the stresses vary abruptly and present the most important discrepancies when compared with the classical theory. This is a main purpose of this article since the application of the FEA can elucidate the situation in these areas to a great extent. From the FEA, possible crack initiation positions are determined and compared with the corresponding results obtained from the experimental investigation. Also, a comparison between the experimental results of the deflections and the numerical values was carried out in order to estimate the declination.