Micromechanical life prediction for composite laminates

A recently developed micromechanics model, the bridging model, is incorporated to predict S-N relationships of composite laminates subjected to arbitrary cyclic loading. For this prediction. only minimum number of input data concerning constituent properties and laminate geometric information are required. The laminate failure mode can be clearly displayed. The prediction has been made for a number of angle ply glass/epoxy laminates under tensile fatigue. Good correlation has been found between the predicted results and available experimental data. For the glass/epoxy system under consideration, it is shown that laminate delamination cannot occur when the laminate has a ply angle of theta less than or equal to 8 degrees or theta greater than or equal to 44 degrees. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.