Cohesive-friction transition in compressed unidirectional thermoplastic composite interfaces
File(s)
Published version
Author(s)
Gao, Chunyi
Tran, Jayden
Ding, Zerong
Blackman, Bamber
Li, Nan
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Thermoplastic composite interfaces can transfer shear through cohesive bonding before local separation. After cohesive load transfer is lost, the separated surfaces may still remain in compressive contact and resist sliding through friction. These two regimes are often characterised separately, although they can occur sequentially at the same compressed interface during thermomechanical processing. Here, a matched debonding-sliding dataset is used to define a cohesive-friction transition law for compressed UD CF/PA6 interfaces. A predefined 0°/90° interlaminar interface is used to identify the apparent nominal shear traction-separation response, while 0°/0° and 0°/90° UD ply contacts are used to quantify residual sliding resistance under controlled and overlapping pressure, temperature and rate conditions. Within the investigated parameter ranges, the apparent cohesive response showed clear changes with normal pressure, temperature and loading rate, whereas the contact-mediated sliding response showed more pronounced changes with normal pressure and fibre orientation than with temperature and loading rate over the tested below-melting window of 190–210 °C. A bilinear cohesive law, a pressure-dependent friction law and a damage-controlled transition formulation are then combined to describe the transfer from cohesive load carrying to residual contact-mediated sliding resistance under compression. The resulting formulation provides a calibrated interface-level description of the debonding-sliding branch and a basis for future forming-relevant assessment of damaged compressed thermoplastic composite interfaces.
Date Issued
2027-01-01
Date Acceptance
2026-09-01
Citation
Composites Part B: Engineering, 2027, 328
ISSN
1359-8368
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Journal / Book Title
Composites Part B: Engineering
Volume
328
Copyright Statement
© 2026 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
License URL
Publication Status
Published
Article Number
114187
Date Publish Online
2026-09-02