Carbon fiber reinforced plastics (CFRPs) are composite materials that consist of carbon fibers in a polymer matrix. CFRPs are increasingly used in light weight applications due to their high specific strength and stiffness. Many different configurations of CFRPs are possible, ranging from uni-directional CFRPs, to 3D woven CFRPs. In this work the emphasis is on the failure properties of thick, 2D woven and 3D non-interlacing orthogonally orienting & binding (3DNOOBED) composites. A characteristic of thick composites is that they fail due to material failure in stead of structural failure, i.e. buckling. The most dominant failure mechanism in thick composites is considered to be the formation of kink-bands. Kink-bands originate under compressive loading when the polymer in between the fibers start to yield. The fibers start to rotate and eventually they fracture. The main goal of this thesis is to develop numerical models that are able to predict the compressive failure behavior of thick composite materials.

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