Application of the Puck failure theory for fibre-reinforced composites under three-dimensional stress: Comparison with experimental results

This paper represents the authors' contribution to Part B of the Second World-Wide Failure Exercise. The paper provides a comparison between the 'blind' theoretical predictions, based on Puck's failure theory, and experimental data for 12 test cases, covering failure of isotropic material, unidirectional laminae and multi-directional laminates under three-dimensional states of stress. The theoretical and experimental results were, in general, in good agreement and no new calibration has been made to the predictions presented in Part A of WWFE-II. Some of the tubular specimens were re-analysed using finite element analysis and that shows that their shape had some effects on the correlation observed between the theory and the experiments. The paper has confirmed the applicability and the capability of the Puck failure criteria to deal with three-dimensional load cases. The paper highlighted the need to further develop physically-based extension of the theory to cater for some of the challenges associated with (a) modelling of large deformation and progressive damage under three-dimensional stresses and (b) closing the open envelopes under certain biaxial and triaxial stresses.