Mechanical response and damage metrics across polymer- and metal-matrix composites: CFRP and AA7065–B4C–graphite hybrid MMC

Unidirectional carbon/epoxy laminates form the basis of weight-sensitive structures, yet tensile allowables
depend on strain metrology and fiber-orientation traceability. A locked tensile workflow that removes
compliance bias and enforces channel synchronization for orientation-resolved property extraction has not
been previously reported. This study develops a compliance-aware, time-synchronized tensile evaluation for
0°, 45°, and 90° coupons taken from a single 16 panel. A 16-ply laminate with fiber volume fraction near 55%
was fabricated. Coupons were tabbed and tested quasi-statically with extensometry, crosshead records were
corrected by rigid-coupon calibration, and strength scatter was modeled using two-parameter Weibull statistics
with bootstrap uncertainty for energy metrics. Anisotropy is large: the 0° modulus was 66.6–66.7 GPa and
strength was ~800 MPa, the 45° modulus was ~15.0 GPa with ~150 MPa strength and ~3.0% failure strain,
and the 90° modulus was 3.3–3.36 GPa with ~50 MPa strength. Energy absorption is orientation dependent;
strain-energy density to failure was 4.59 MJ m−3 at 0°, 3.50 MJ m−3 at 45°, and 0.36 MJ m−3 at 90°. The
processing chain yields design-ready properties and reliability descriptors suitable for lamina-level modeling
and combined-stress assessment. Future work targets hygrothermal conditioning, full-field strain mapping, and
strain-rate coverage from 10−5 to 10−1 s−1.