Abstract—In present day several industries such as aeronautical industries, automobile industries, marine industries, chemical industries and transportation industries relay on fibre reinforced composites to manufacture several components such as flaps, doors, gears and other components. These fibre reinforced composite laminates are susceptible to de-lamination damage causing catastrophic failure of the components. The anisotropic nature of laminated composite materials become the source of de-lamination, de-lamination growth is the fundamental issue in the evaluation of laminated composite systems for durability and damage tolerance. Prediction of the Inter laminar shear strength of the fibre reinforced composites is important for engineering applications yet difficult in nature. The mechanical behaviour of materials and its properties becomes complex with the addition of fibres. These materials subjected to various loads such as tension, compression and flexural loads are susceptible to mechanical damages which results in de lamination in the inter layers of the composites. The effect of de lamination may result in the catastrophic failure of the component with the increase in the external load. This paper out lines the experimental investigation of inter laminar shear strength as a critical mechanical property of fibre reinforced composite laminate. The main objective of this paper is to find the inter laminar shear strength (trans-plane properties) to study the effect of de lamination in the composite laminates and to evaluate inter laminar shear strength of various fibre reinforced composites and to draw appropriate conclusions.

Index Terms—Polymer Laminate, Polymer matrix composite, Inter laminar shear test, Delamination, Shearstress

Cite: Rathnakar G and H K Shivanand, "Experimental Evaluation of Inter Laminar Shear Strength of Fibre Reinforced Composites," International Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Robotics Research, Vol.3, No. 4, pp. 72-79, October 2014.