World Journal of Mechanics, 2021, 11, 121-145 https://www.scirp.org/journal/wjm ISSN Online: 2160-0503 ISSN Print: 2160-049X DOI: 10.4236/wjm.2021.117010 Jul. 7, 2021 121 World Journal of Mechanics Comparative Study of Energy Absorption Capability of Flat Plate Coupons Made by CFRP Plain Weave Fabric Composites Redouane Lombarkia 1* , Augustin Gakwaya 1 , Denis Nandlall 2 , Marie-Laure Dano 1 , Julie Lévesque 1 , Ameur BenKhelifa 1 , Philippe Vachon-Joannette 1 , Philippe Gagnon 1 1 Department of Mechanical Engineering, Université Laval, Québec, Canada 2 Canada Defence Research & Development Canada, Valcartier, Québec, Canada Abstract Despite years of governmental and academic institutions’ researches, no ex- perimental standards are established for evaluating crush Specific Energy Absorption SEA for plain weave fabric woven carbon-fiber-reinforced com- posites used in modern aircraft structures as elements of the boxes to mitigate damage during crush events. At the laboratory scale, this paper proposes a comparative study of energy absorption capability of flat plate coupons made by CFRP plain weave fabric composites. A new fixture design and setup were created with hydraulic pressure and drop tower machines to carry out tests of flat plate composite specimens under quasi-static and low velocity on-axis crash loading. For investigating parameters sensibility of triggers and layups, numerical and experimental results of four trigger types and three stacking sequences were compared. A confrontation between experimental and pre- developed UL-Crush numerical material model results confirms that coupons with 0˚ oriented central plies and saw teeth or corrugated triggers dissipates higher energy during crush, compared to coupons with 90˚ or 45˚ oriented central plies and chamfer 45˚ or steeple triggers. An efficient and simplified experimental methodology was developed to measure and investigate differ- ent parameters influencing SEA of composites under crush load. Comparison between experimental and UL-Crush material model confirms the perform- ance of such simulation tool. Keywords Crush Behavior, Triggers, Damage and Failure Mechanisms, Crashworthiness, SEA How to cite this paper: Lombarkia, R., Gak- waya, A., Nandlall, D., Dano, M.-L., Lévesque, J., BenKhelifa, A., Vachon-Joannette, P. and Gagnon, P. (2021) Comparative Study of Energy Absorption Capability of Flat Plate Coupons Made by CFRP Plain Weave Fab- ric Composites. World Journal of Mechan- ics, 11, 121-145. https://doi.org/10.4236/wjm.2021.117010 Received: May 4, 2021 Accepted: July 4, 2021 Published: July 7, 2021 Copyright © 2021 by author(s) and Scientific Research Publishing Inc. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution International License (CC BY 4.0). http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Open Access