Fatigue Behavior of Composite Laminate

Abstract

The paper discusses a characterization of fatigue behavior of [0/±45/90] _s glass/epoxy laminate in terms of the following parameters: static properties; S-N relationship; reliability; effect of thickness variation; damage initiation and growth; temperature increase; secant modulus change; effect of preloading on residual modulus and strength; and effect of ply failure on compression buckling strength. Some of the findings are the following. The primary failure process responsible for up to about 10⁶ cycles of fatigue life is the wear-out followed by the chance failure. Change of secant modulus can be used as a measure of damage extent. Preloading to a high level has negligible effect on the residual tensile strength when the fatigue stress is low. However, ply failure and partial delamination result in a moderate loss of compression buckling strength.