Abstract
Cutout can be commonly found in Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer (CFRP) composite structures such as wing box of aircraft and may lead to significant reduction in structural stability and strength. In this study, experimental and numerical studies are conducted to investigate the bearing behavior and failure characteristic of multidirectional CFRP composite laminate involving different shaped cutouts under shearing load. The stress concentration, buckling behavior, postbuckling bearing capacity as well as the progressive failure mechanisms of specimens with different shaped cutout are analyzed in detail. The effect of cutout size on global response is also discussed. Finally, the effectiveness of reinforcement by inserting sub-merged co-curing layer is evaluated by both numerical modeling and experimental testing. There are two parts to this work. The first part focusing on experiment is presented in this paper. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.