Research on the shear behaviour of plain weave prepreg at lateral compaction stage

An investigation of the shear behaviour of plain weave prepreg at lateral compaction stage was undertaken by the picture-frame test. A unit cell of weave prepreg was modelled and three moments were assumed in the unit cell: (i) the moment of shear force that picture frame applies on the unit cell; (ii) the friction moment at crossover of yarns; and (iii) the compaction moment between the yarns. Through moment balance, a relationship between the load and the shear rate was deduced. A plain sheet shearing film resin model was established to obtain the friction moment at crossover. To get the compaction moment, a constitutive equation of a single prepreged yarn was deduced and a transverse viscosity coefficient equation was given. Moreover, through an equivalent cross-sectional area model, the lateral contact thickness between the yarns was obtained. The comparison between the experimental and theoretical results shows that the presented model can describe the shear behaviour of weave prepreg at lateral compaction stage well.