Materials Science and Engineering A285 (2000) 303 – 313

www.elsevier.com/locate/msea

A micromechanics based model for predicting fatigue life of

composite laminates
Nagendra V. Akshantala a, Ramesh Talreja b,*
a
The Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company, Akron, OH 44309 -3531, USA
b
School of Aerospace Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332 -0150, USA

Abstract

The current practice, as well as the hitherto proposed models, for assessment of fatigue life of composite laminates rely largely
on experimental fatigue life data. In this paper, we propose a methodology for fatigue life prediction that utilizes a micromechan-
ics based evaluation of damage evolution in conjunction with a semi-empirical fatigue failure criterion. The specific case treated
is that of cross ply laminates under cyclic tension. The predicted results are compared with experimental data for several
glass/epoxy and carbon/epoxy laminates, and good agreement is found. Published by Elsevier Science S.A.

Keywords: Micromechanics; Fatigue life; Composite laminates

1. Introduction al. [10,11] included internal delaminations to explain

Damage in composites is not identical under quasi-
static loading and under fatigue loading. During fa-
tigue, for example, cross-ply laminates develop
extensive internal delaminations [1] which are virtually
absent under quasi-static loading except near the failure
strains of the laminates [2]. Also, the quantitative dam-
age behavior that develops under these loading situa-
tions are different. For example, the transverse crack
density in cross-ply laminates during fatigue is much
higher than that obtained under quasi-static loading at
similar stress levels [3]. These differences in damage can
be explained via a mechanistic model, only by including
all the prevailing damage modes in the laminate. Such a
model will furnish realistic estimates of the stress fields
within the damaged laminate and consequently accu-
rate damage evolution predictions can be made.
For cross-ply laminates, which is the focus of this
paper, the dominant damage modes under fatigue are,
the transverse cracks forming in the 90° plies and
internal delaminations at the 0/90 interface [1,4]. There
are a few models in the literature that include both
transverse cracks and internal delaminations in their
analysis ([5–9]). However, these models do not attempt
to explain the damage evolution under fatigue. Diao et
fatigue damage evolution but incorrectly assumed the
delamination length as arbitrarily fixed under cycling.
We will discuss their work again in Section 6.4. The
present approach uses a variational model to solve for
the stress fields in a damaged laminate and subse-
quently makes damage evolution predictions and
durability assessments for the laminate.
2. Stress analysis for a damaged laminate
A schematic of a cross-ply laminate of the type
[0n /90m ]s is shown in Fig. 1. The laminate is initially
undamaged. Due to the application of a tensile mem-
brane force Nxx, transverse cracks develop in the 90°
layer. As the laminate is cycled at this maximum load
level, internal delaminations initiated at the tips of the
matrix cracks grow along the interface as shown in the
unit cell in Fig. 2. The thickness of the 90° layer is 2t1,
that of the 0° layer is t2 and the total laminate thickness
is 2h. The unit cell has been divided into two regions.
Region I is the delaminated part of the unit cell which
includes both matrix cracks and internal delaminations.
These damage modes are assumed to extend along the
full width of the laminate. Region II is where the
interface is still perfectly bonded. The top and bottom
* Correspoding author. faces of the unit cell, x= 9 a and z5 t1, and are the

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PII: S 0 9 2 1 - 5 0 9 3 ( 0 0 ) 0 0 6 7 9 - 1
304 N.V. Akshantala, R. Talreja / Materials Science and Engineering A285 (2000) 303–313

matrix crack faces and are traction free and the delam- on the material system being analyzed, two different
ination length is taken as d. situations may arise,
The two regions of the unit cell will be analyzed and
the stress fields in the whole unit cell will be obtained. Case I:
 p2 
−q B 0
The analysis procedure follows the principle of mini- 4
mum complementary energy. The analysis procedure is f1(j)= A1 cosh (aj) cos (bj)+ A2 sinh (aj) sin (bj)
discussed at length in [12]. For convenience, the proce- (3)
dure is briefly outlined below.
When a laminate is damaged, the stress fields are
perturbed from their undamaged states. Only axial
Case II:
 p2 
−q ] 0
4
stresses exist in the undamaged cross-ply laminate. Due
to damage, the axial stresses are assumed to take the f1(j)= A1 cosh (aj)+A2 cosh (bj) (4)
following forms [13],
where p, q, a and b are constants depending on the
s L(1)
xx =s1 −s1f1(x) (1) material properties of the ply. j= x/t1 is the non-di-
mensionalized axial co-ordinate. A1 and A2 are ob-
s L(2)
xx =s2 −s2[f2(x) + A(x)·z]
tained using the continuity conditions at x= 9(a–d)
xx and s xx are the axial normal stresses in the
where s L(1) L(2)
The stress analysis of Region I is similar to that of
90 and 0° layers of the damaged laminate, respectively. Region II. Assuming the following forms for the axial
Eq. (1) indicate that the axial stresses are modified from perturbation stresses, an admissible stress system for
their undamaged values of s1 and s2 by the perturba- Region I is obtained.
tion stress terms. f1(x) and f2(x) are the as yet un-
known perturbation functions. Note that the normal xx = − s1c1(x)
s (1)
stress in the 90° layer is assumed to be constant through
s (2)
xx = − s2[c2(x)+ A*z] (5)
the thickness whereas it is assumed to vary linearly in
the 0° layer. Hashin [13] assumed a constant stress in where c1(x) and c2(x) are the perturbation functions
both layers whereas the analysis of Varna and Berglund and A* is a constant. Also, the condition of axial strain
incorporated a thickness dependence for the 0° layer continuity at the interface is satisfied only at the delam-
[14] and later for both the 90 and 0° layers [15]. They ination tip and not along the whole interface.
showed that Hashin’s result is correct for the limiting
case of t2/t1  1. For the present purposes, the above
2.1. Role of delamination
assumptions on thickness dependence provides good
results for the laminates under consideration [12].
Three different scenarios for a laminate under fatigue
Next, an admissible stress system is obtained by
were considered in [16] and their ability to explain the
satisfying the equilibrium equations and the traction
fatigue damage behavior were discussed. It was seen
boundary and interface conditions. Integrating the
that for a cross-ply laminate with only transverse
equilibrium equations and introducing Eq. (1) gives us
cracks, the laminate stresses do not change after a load
the following expressions for the perturbation stress
cycle. The laminate undergoes a reversible deformation
components in the damaged laminate.
and the stresses in the laminate at the end of the load
s (1)
xz = s1[f %1(x)·z +f1(x)]


excursion are the same as they were at the beginning.

s (1)
zz = − s1
1 %%
f (x)·z 2 +f %1(x)·z +g1(x)
n Some irreversibility must exist under fatigue that can
explain changes in the stress state within the laminate.
2 1

s (2)

xz = s2 f 2(x)·z+
%
A%(x) 2
z +f2(x)
n It was proposed that frictional sliding, at the interface,
between the 0 and 90° layers provides for this irre-


2 versible mechanism. Avoiding the complexities involved

s (2)
zz = − s2
1 %% 1
f 2(x)·z 2 + A¦(x)·z 3 +f %2(x)·z +g2(x)
n with frictional cracks between dissimilar materials, it
2 6
(2)
The arbitrary functions f1, f2, g1, g2 are obtained by
satisfying the traction boundary and interface condi-
tions. Note that f2 can be expressed in terms of f1
through force equilibrium in the loading direction. f1 is
obtained by the standard minimization of the comple-
mentary energy of the unit cell and solving the resulting
Euler–Lagrange differential equation [12]. Depending
was assumed that the frictional process can be repre-
sented by a shear stress distribution along the interface.
A linear and a cubic shear stress distribution were
compared to see if the fatigue behavior of the cross-ply
laminates could be predicted with any accuracy [12]. It
was shown that the cubic shear stress distribution was
better than the linear distribution in predicting damage
evolution and the mechanical properties of the lami-
nate. The admissible stress system for Region I for the
assumed cubic shear stress distribution are given below.
 N.V. Akshantala, R. Talreja / Materials Science and Engineering A285 (2000) 303–313 305

c1(x)=
t  x− (a− d) d 
− (x − (a −d))3 +
d4
+1
n (6)
s1t1a 3 4 3 12

Fig. 3. Typical variation of the axial normal stress, sxx, with delami-
nation at a fixed crack density.

s (1)
xx = − s1c1(x)

xz = s1c%1(x)z
s (1)

zz = − s1c 1
s (1) %%  −

z 2 t1 t 21
−ht1 +
h2
−
 n
t 21
2 t2 2 2 2
s (2)
xx = − s2[c2(x)+ A*z]

s1t1
s (2)
xz = c % (x)(h − z)
t2 1

s (2)
zz =
s1t1 %%
c 1(x)
z2−hz+
h2  (7)
t2 2 2
With the admissible stress system, the complementary
Fig. 1. Schematic of a fatigue damaged cross-ply laminate. energy for Region I can be written and minimized as
before. Utilizing the traction continuity conditions be-
tween Region I and Region II and minimizing the
complementary energy, an expression for t, the shear
stress magnitude at the interface, is obtained [12].

3. Damage evolution predictions

With the stress fields in the unit cell determined, the

Fig. 2. Schematic of the unit cell for a fatigue damaged laminate.
maximum stress criterion is employed to predict dam-
age evolution. Such a criterion is justified for brittle
matrix composite systems such as epoxy based com-
posites. For example, it was shown by Talreja and
Akshantala [17] that for carbon/epoxy and glass/epoxy
laminates, the energy criterion and the point failure
criterion gave almost identical results up to very high
crack densities.
To see if additional transverse cracks formed under
fatigue, delamination length was incremented and the
stresses in the laminate recalculated. Fig. 3 shows a
typical plot of the variation of the axial normal stress at
the midpoint of the unit cell, x =z= 0, with delamina-
tion length, at a fixed crack density of 0.65 crack/mm
for a [0/902]s AS-4/3501-6 laminate. The material prop-
erty data were taken from [4]. As shown, the stress
initially drops as for the case of traction free delamina-
tions but with further increase in delamination length,
the stress begins to increase. Once the stress reaches a
critical stress level, the 90° layer fails, forming a new
306 N.V. Akshantala, R. Talreja / Materials Science and Engineering A285 (2000) 303–313

transverse crack. Thus, changes in crack density with h= h(smax,l, M, K) (11)

increasing delamination are obtained.
where M denotes the material properties of the lami-
nate and K denotes the geometry of the laminate, for
4. Damage evolution with cycles example, thickness of the cracking plies. Now, applying
the chain-rule of differentiation to the above relation,
Due to the difficulty in experimentally measuring d h (h d l
internal delamination lengths, predictions of crack den- = · (12)
d N (l d N
sity change with delamination length are of little practi-
cal use and corroboration of the predicted data with for constant smax, M and K. Because change in crack
experimental data is not possible. It is traditional and density is a discrete process, it is assumed that,
more convenient to plot damage evolution with respect (h Dh
to the number of load cycles elapsed. In order to extend 
(l Dl
the present model to make such predictions, a relation-
ship between delamination length and number of cycles and therefore,
is needed. Such a relationship is difficult to obtain d h Dh Dh d l
unless the physics of the actual irreversibility causing  = · (13)
d N DN Dl d N
delamination growth is known. Recourse is taken, in
general, to the so called power-law relations, to estab- Comparing Eqs. (8) and (13), it is observed that a
lish this relationship. These equations are empirical and power-law relation can be assumed for crack density
change with cycles. Thus,
 
are seen to work well for most fatigue crack propaga-
tion studies. d h Dh D( t n

In the present approach, the following growth-law is  =A (14)

d N DN l(

 
assumed for delaminations,
dl D( t m A and n can be obtained from experimental data of
=B (8) crack density change with cycles at any one fatigue
dN l(
stress level. When Eq. (14) is introduced into Eq. (13)
where, we obtain,
D( t = Dt/smax dl
=
Dl
·A
D( t   n
(15)
Dt = tmax −tmin d N DN l(
Integrating Eq. (15) gives,
&  
l( = l/t1

 
and where l =delamination length. li + 1
Dh 1
Ni = dl (16)
Integrating Eq. (8), the number of cycles it takes to li Dl (D( t)i n

go from crack density, hi to hi + 1 is obtained as, A

& l(

li + 1
1 Eq. (16) can be used to predict damage evolution
Ni = dl (9)
li D( t m
B
l(
where li and li + 1 are the initial delamination lengths at
crack densities hi and hi + 1, respectively. The total
number of cycles going through all crack densities, p,
till full delamination is reached is therefore,
P−1
N = % Ni
i=1
Ideally, the above procedure should give the crack
density change with number of cycles. But since it is
difficult to measure delamination length and there is no
available data that shows delamination growth with
cycles, the constants B and m can not be determined in
the usual method of fitting to such experimental data.
To overcome this limitation, the following procedure is
used. The change in crack density in a laminate loaded
in fatigue at any given number of cycles can be written
as,
with number of cycles at any fatigue stress level for a
particular laminate configuration. It is also possible to
use the same constants, A and n, for more than one
cross-ply laminate configuration. Liu and Nairn [18],
for example, showed that the micro-crack density
growth rate as a function of applied strain energy
release rate range, DG, for different cross-ply layups fall
(10) on a master curve. It seems likely that the same results
will apply even here.
5. Generating a fatigue life diagram
The fatigue damage model presented so far has not
included laminate failure. Laminate failure in cross-ply
laminates is dictated by the failure of the 0° plies. An
approximate procedure is presented here that intro-
duces a criterion for laminate failure without delving
into the damage mechanisms of the 0° ply.
 N.V. Akshantala, R. Talreja / Materials Science and Engineering A285 (2000) 303–313
For most polymer matrix composites, the fatigue
life diagram for a laminate can be categorized into
three regimes depending on the operative damage
mechanisms inside the laminate. Fig. 4 shows a typi-
cal fatigue life diagram for a carbon/epoxy cross-ply
laminate [19]. The progressive damage region, Region
II, of the fatigue life diagram is indicative of multiple
micro-structural damage initiation, their growth and
subsequent interaction before final failure of the lami-
nate. Note that Region I and Region II in the
present case refer to the fatigue life diagram and not
to the unit cell of Fig. 2. The same notations are
used to maintain consistency with the definitions
given in [19]. For cross-ply laminates, the sloping
scatter band is influenced mainly by the multiplication
and interaction of transverse matrix cracks and inter-
nal delaminations. Since our analysis can predict the
evolution of these damage modes, region II of the
fatigue life diagram will be modeled here.
The failure criterion is based on the assumption
that the crack density that is achieved just before
laminate failure hf, varies linearly with the logarithm
Fig. 4. Fatigue life diagram of a cross-ply laminate [19].
Fig. 5. An approximate failure criterion for laminate failure.
307
of number of cycles to failure, hf. This is expressed
as,
hf = A(log Nf)+ B (17)
where A and B are constants that should be obtained
experimentally. The failure criterion is shown sche-
matically in Fig. 5. As seen from the fatigue life dia-
gram in Fig. 4, the progressive damage region,
Region II, encompasses all applied strain levels be-
tween the critical strain to failure and the fatigue
limit. This is reflected in the failure criterion of Fig.
5. Region II of the fatigue life diagram begins where
Region I ends. Region I for most unidirectional
graphite/epoxy and glass/epoxy laminates extends up
to 102 –103 cycles [19]. Also, since Region I for a
cross-ply laminate is dominated by 0° failure with
matrix cracks and delaminations playing an inconse-
quential role, it will not be different from the unidi-
rectional case [17]. For the sake of illustration,
Region II is taken to start at 102 cycles. It should be
noted that this value is, in general, different for dif-
ferent materials. Substituting this condition in Eq.
(17) gives
hf = hc = 2A+ B (18)
where, hc is the maximum crack density that is ob-
tained under quasi-static loading.
Region II ends at the fatigue limit strain level. Be-
low this strain the laminate hypothetically has infinite
life. We will assume a run-out at 106 cycles. Substi-
tuting this value in Eq. (17) gives,
hf = hFPF = 6A+ B (19)
hFPF is the crack density that is obtained when the
laminate is cycled at the first-ply-failure strain for 106
cycles. This strain level is considered to be the fatigue
limit for cross-ply laminates [19]. Experimental results
however indicate a higher fatigue limit for carbon/
epoxy laminates [4,20] and in such cases hFPF is the
crack density at the experimental fatigue limit strain.
Solving for A and B from Eqs. (18) and (19),
A=
 hFPF − hc n
4
B=
 3hc − nNPF n (20)
2
Using Eq. (17), it is now a simple matter to gener-
ate a fatigue life diagram graphically. The lives at
which the straight line, Eq. (17), intersects the crack
density versus log number of cycles curves, obtained
in Section 4, are the failure lives at the corresponding
applied strain values. The applied strain at which the
desired crack density and fatigue cycles are reached
can also be found numerically.
308 N.V. Akshantala, R. Talreja / Materials Science and Engineering A285 (2000) 303–313

from experiments for a similar laminate configuration

[22]. Also, as seen from Fig. 7 the residual modulus
predictions using the cubic distribution for this lami-
nate is accurate [15]. Note that the last data point
corresponds to the case of full delamination. The linear
distribution, however, shows an increase in modulus
which is not seen for such a laminate configuration.
These results indicate that the cubic distribution pre-
dicts the laminate behavior better than the linear
distribution.

Fig. 6. Crack density change with delamination length for [02/902]s

carbon/epoxy laminate at a maximum applied strain of 0.3% as given
by the assumed linear and cubic shear stress distributions in the
delaminated region.

Fig. 8. Transverse crack evolution with cycles for a [0/902]s carbon/

epoxy laminate at a maximum stress of 413.685 MPa and a stress
ratio of 0.1. Experimental data from [4].

Fig. 7. Longitudinal Young’s modulus variation with crack density

for a [02/902]s carbon/epoxy laminate.

6. Results and discussion

6.1. Damage e6olution with delamination

Fig. 6 shows transverse crack evolution for a [02/902]s

carbon/epoxy laminate with increasing delamination.
The material property data were taken from [21]. Both
the linear and cubic shear stress distributions were used
for the predictions. As shown in the figure, the linear
distribution predicts a higher crack density compared to
the cubic case. However, the final value of the crack Fig. 9. Transverse crack evolution with cycles for a [0/902]s carbon/
density (0.5 crack mm − 1) obtained using the cubic epoxy laminate at a maxium stress of 482.633 MPa and a stress ratio
distribution corresponds with the final crack density of 0.1. Experimental data from [4].
 N.V. Akshantala, R. Talreja / Materials Science and Engineering A285 (2000) 303–313
Fig. 10. Transverse crack evolution with cycles for a [0/90]s glass/
epoxy laminate at maximum stresses of 177.78 and 246.15 MPa and
a stress ratio of 0.1. Experimental data from [23].
6.2. Damage e6olution with cycles
Figs. 8 and 9 show experimental as well as theoretical
predictions of transverse crack evolution with cycles for
a [0/902]s AS-4/3501-6 laminate. The material properties
for this carbon/epoxy laminate were taken from [4].
The power law constants, A and n in Eq. (14), were
obtained using the experimental data of change in crack
density with cycles at a maximum stress of 344.74 MPa
and at a stress ratio of 0.1 [4]. The constants were
found to be, A= 1.6995 × 10 − 4 and n = 1.47. Using
these constants predictions of crack density change with
cycles were made for maximum applied stresses of
413.69 and 482.63 MPa as shown in Figs. 8 and 9,
respectively. The crack density predictions agree very
well with the experimental data. To the authors’ knowl-
edge, the only available experimental data of damage
progression in fatigue for glass/epoxy cross-ply lami-
nates was performed by Highsmith and Reifsnider [23].
However, as they reported data at a single applied
stress value of 207 MPa, no experimental verification of
our model predictions could be made. The power law
constants, as obtained from the experimental data were,
A =7.5323×10 − 4 and n = 1.29. Fig. 10 shows predic-
tions of crack density evolution for a [0/90]s laminate at
different maximum stress values of 177.78 and 246.15
MPa. These stresses correspond to applied strains of
0.65 and 0.9%, respectively. Figs. 8 – 10 clearly indicate
the phenomenon of saturation in crack density under
cycling. It is also observed that the saturation crack
densities are different at different applied stress levels
and that there is no unique saturation crack density for
a laminate as claimed previously [1].
309
It should be noted that the fatigue damage model can
predict damage behavior correctly up to very large
number of cycles. Given the stress at which a laminate
is cycled, the model can predict the number of cycles it
would take to reach a particular damage level. There-
fore, the model can be extended to make durability
assessments for cross-ply laminates.
6.3. Fatigue life diagram
An approximate way of generating a fatigue life
diagram was mentioned in Section 5. The procedure is
now applied to carbon/epoxy and glass/epoxy cross-ply
laminates. Fig. 11 shows a semi-log plot of change in
crack density with number of fatigue cycles for a [0/90]s
glass/epoxy laminate at various maximum strain values.
The failure criterion requires that the crack densities at
two strain limits be known. First, the maximum crack
density that is achieved under quasi-static loading, hc,
at the critical failure strain, oc, is found from experimen-
tal data to be 2.5 cracks mm − 1 [15]. The laminate is
seen to fail at 100 cycles when cycled at this strain level.
This is typical for unidirectional glass/epoxy laminates
and since laminate failure in this non-progressive dam-
age regime in cross-ply laminates is controlled by the 0°
ply failure, the number of cycles to failure is taken to be
the same as that for the unidirectional ply [19]. The
other limit for strain is the fatigue limit which is taken
as the first ply failure strain, oFPF, for many laminate
configurations and material systems [19]. The first ply
failure strain is 0.5% for this [0/90]s laminate [23]. The
crack density, hFPF, at 106 cycles when the laminate is
cycled at oFPF is 0.8 cracks mm − 1. This value of crack
density was obtained from the damage evolution pre-
dictions of the model Section 6.2.
With the final crack densities at these two strain
levels, the final crack density at any intermediate strain
level is assumed to vary linearly with log number of
cycles to failure. Though this assumed linearity in the
failure criterion is only an approximation, it however
reflects the experimentally observed phenomenon that
with decreasing maximum applied strain, lower crack
densities are obtained and longer lives are observed for
the laminate. When the failure line is super-imposed on
the crack density curves as shown in Fig. 11, the fatigue
life diagram can be generated by graphically reading
the values of the applied strain and the number of
cycles to failure as given by the intersection of the
straight line with the crack density curves. The fatigue
life diagram for this laminate is shown in Fig. 12.
Experimental data for a 0/90 glass/epoxy laminate is
also shown [20]. Approximate scatter bands are drawn
to illustrate that the experimental data fall within those
bands. It is seen that the model can predict the sloping
nature of the progressive damage regime of the fatigue
life diagram very well. This is the region where matrix
310 N.V. Akshantala, R. Talreja / Materials Science and Engineering A285 (2000) 303–313

cracking and internal delaminations are the dominant
damage modes under fatigue. A semi-log plot of trans-
verse crack evolution with cycles for a [0/902]s AS4/
3501-6 carbon/epoxy laminate is shown in Fig. 13. The
material property data was taken from [4]. The linear
failure criterion is also shown. Even though the first ply
failure strain for this laminate is at 0.46%, the fatigue
limit is at 0.75% strain [4]. The crack density that is
obtained at 106 cycles at this strain level, hFPF, is seen
from experiments to be 1.6 crack mm − 1 [4]. It is noted

Fig. 11. Semi-log plot of change in crack density with cycles for a [0/90]s glass/epoxy laminate at different maximum strain levels.

Fig. 12. Fatigue life diagram for a [0/90]s glass/epoxy laminate. Experimental fatigue life data from [20].
 N.V. Akshantala, R. Talreja / Materials Science and Engineering A285 (2000) 303–313 311

Fig. 13. Semi-log plot of change in crack density with cycles for a [0/902]s carbon/epoxy laminate at different maximum strain levels.

Fig. 14. Fatigue life diagram for a [0/902]s carbon/epoxy laminate. Experimental fatigue life data from [4].

from Fig. 13 that the model predicts the same hFPF. The
saturation crack density before failure, hc is 1.8 cracks
mm − 1 and the failure regime extends up to 40 cycles
[4]. Fig. 14 shows the fatigue life diagram for this
laminate. The model predictions are seen to agree fairly
well with experimental data.
6.4. Inadequacy of the stress-life approach
A few researchers have tried to use the S–N curve of
the 90° layer to predict the fatigue life of composite
laminates. Diao et al. [10,11] employed the concept of
critical and non-critical elements [24] and assumed that
312 N.V. Akshantala, R. Talreja / Materials Science and Engineering A285 (2000) 303–313
the residual strength degradation of the critical element
controls the final failure. The non-critical elements only
serve to transfer stress to the critical elements. Thus, a
stress redistribution factor was introduced which deter-
mines the stress that is transferred from the 90° layer
(the non-critical element) to the 0° layer (the critical
element). In determining the stress redistribution factor
under fatigue loading, the S – N curve of the 90° ply was
employed. Also, the authors predict transverse cracks
evolution with number of cycles using this S – N curve.
Fig. 15 shows a plot of the axial normal stress at the
midpoint between two transverse cracks, assuming no
delamination, in the 90° layer of a [0/902]s cross-ply
laminate. The applied stress on the laminate is 344.74
MPa and the stresses were calculated using Hashin’s
variational method [13]. It is seen that as the crack
density increases, the axial normal stress decreases. At a
crack density of 1.5 cracks mm − 1, which is the final
crack density for the laminate when cycled at this
maximum stress level [4], the axial normal stress is
24.4% of the static strength of the 90° ply. This is well
below the fatigue limit of a 90° lamina [4]. In addition,
if traction free delaminations are assumed to exist at
the interface [11], the axial stresses should drop even
further [16]. Hence, the S – N curve of the 90° layer can
not fully explain the fatigue damage behavior of the
laminate.
7. Conclusions
The paper presented was able to predict with fair
accuracy the fatigue lives of cross-ply composite lami-
nates. Instead of relying exclusively on empirical stress-
Fig. 15. Normalized axial normal stress variation in the 90° layer at
the midpoint between two transverse cracks in a [0/902]s carbon/
epoxy laminate with crack dnesity. Normalization is done with re-
spect to the static strength of the 90° ply.
life curves for laminates, the present approach
developed a progressive damage model. Thus, not only
the fatigue lives of laminates could be predicted but
also, the damage sustained by them at any intermediate
number of cycles. This is especially attractive for struc-
tural applications because inspection intervals can be
decided based on the model predictions and also the
number of inspections can be significantly reduced.
Though not entirely free of empiricism, the model keeps
the empirical constants to a minimum. Stochastic mod-
els can be incorporated into the model for predicting
damage evolution and in determining the scatter band
of the fatigue life diagram to obtain improved fatigue
life predictions.
The stress fields in a damaged cross-ply laminate
were obtained for a cross-ply laminate with both trans-
verse cracks and internal delaminations.
The model was extended to make damage evolution
predictions with fatigue cycles. A power-law relation-
ship was employed for this purpose. The resulting crack
density changes with cycles were seen to agree well with
experimental data.
Finally, a fatigue failure criterion for a laminate was
discussed. The laminate fatigue life predictions were
presented via fatigue life diagrams and it was seen that
the model can predict the progressive failure regime of
the laminate with fair accuracy.
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