Composite Structures 28 (1994) 139-148

© 1994 Elsevier Science Limited

Printed in Great Britain. All rights reserved
0263-8223/94/$7.00
ELSEVIER

Effect of void content on the strength of

composite laminates
S6rgio Frascino Mfiller de Almeida
Instituto Tecnol6gico de Aerom~utica, Department of Mechanical Engineering, 12228-900 Sdo Jos~ dos Campos -- SP, Brasil
&

Zabulon dos Santos Nogueira Neto

Empresa Brasileira de Aeron~utica -- EMBRAER, Composite Materials Division, 12227-901 S~o Jos~ dos Campos -- SP, Brasil

An experimentalprogram was conducted to assess the effect of void content on

the static strength and fatigue life of composite laminates under flexural
loading. The fabrication procedure used to produce carbon/epoxy laminates
with reasonably uniform void content and constant fiber fraction is described.
A fracture criterion correlating the ultrasonic attenuation to the strength of
composite laminates is presented. Good correlation with experimental results
of interlaminar shear and flexural strength was obtained. The fatigue test results
and the proposed theory indicate that voids have a strong detrimental effect on
the fatigue life of composite structures if the void content is above a critical
value. The proposed theory provides the basis of an experimental program
aimed at determining the maximum allowable ultrasonic attenuation of a
composite laminate for a specificloading condition.

NOTATION Received signal voltage (V)

Transmitted signal voltage (V)
a Notch radius (mm)
Ab Back surface loss (db) Ct Absorption coefficient (db/mm)
Af Front surface loss (db) acr Critical absorption coefficient (db/mm)
At Transmission losses through the specimen Average attenuation level
(db) of Stress at outer surface of flexural speci-
AT Total attenuation due to the specimen (db) men at fracture (MPa)
b Specimen width (mm) Of0 Stress at outer surface of flexural speci-
H Laminate toughness (MPa (db/mm) m) men with void content below the critical
l Load span of four-point bending fixture value at fracture (MPa)
(mm) O"F Fracture stress (MPa)
L Support span of four-point bending amax Maximum applied stress on the outer
fixture (mm) surface of the specimen in a fatigue test
-m Order of the stress singularity (iPa)
N Fatigue life of a flexural specimen (cycles)
No Fatigue life of a flexural specimen with INTRODUCTION
void content below the critical value
(cycles) It is well known that manufacturing induced
P Applied load (N) defects, such as voids and delaminations, have a
S Normalized stress detrimental effect on some mechanical properties
t Laminate thickness (mm) of composite laminates. 1,2 In general, such defects
Vf Void content (%) cause a decrease in the static and fatigue strength
Fiber fraction in volume (%) of the laminate and a greater susceptibility to
Vo Reference voltage (V) water penetration and environmental conditions.
139
140 SOrgio Frascino Miiller de Almeida, Zabulon dos Santos Nogueira Neto
The effect of delaminations in composite lami-
nates has received considerable attention in the
literature. However, few data are available on the
effect of void content on the mechanical proper-
ties of composite laminates. In fact, it is generally
accepted that a good quality laminate should have
a maximum void content of 0.5%, 2 but there is not
an objective criterion to define such limit. This
implies that a part with void content higher than
an arbitrarily chosen limit is discarded even
though its mechanical properties may be satisfac-
tory for the intended application.
The acceptable level of void content in com-
posite parts should be established from an exten-
sive experimental program designed to
characterize the influence of void content on the
mechanical properties of composite laminates.
The number of required tests may be consider-
ably reduced if a theoretical model is developed
to predict the laminate strength as a function of
the void content and a number of material pro-
perties. Bowles and Frimpong3 studied the influ-
ence of void content on the interlaminar shear
strength of AS4/PMR-15 unidirectional com-
posites. They correlated their experimental results
to three theoretical models but concluded that no
model accurately predicts the laminate strength.
Ultrasonic inspection is the most used non-
destructive technique to detect the presence of
manufacturing defects in composite parts. There-
fore, for quality control purposes, it is natural to
define the maximum acceptable void content in
terms of ultrasonic attenuation rather than
directly establishing a maximum percentage of
voids in the material. Similarly, the theoretical
model should be able to predict the strength of the
laminate as a function of the ultrasonic attenua-
tion.
In this work, the influence of void content on
the flexural strength of CFRP laminates is experi-
mentally investigated. Specimens with four differ-
ent levels of void content were tested under static
and fatigue loads. A fracture criterion based on
the Mar-Lin equation4 is proposed and used to
define the acceptable level of void content in the
laminate.
2 EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE
Four plates with different levels of porosity were
manufactured using pre-impregnated carbon/
epoxy fabric HexceU F584. The material proper-
ties are given in Table 1. The plates were
Table 1. Materialproperties
Longitudinal tensile modulus, E~ (GPa) 73"0
Transversal tensile modulus, E_, (GPa) 73'0
Shear modulus, GI2 (GPa) 6"6
Poisson's ratio, vt 2 0"045
Longitudinal tensile strength (MPa) 943
Transversal tensile strength (MPa) 943
rectangular with dimensions 160 mm × 230 mm
and a nominal thickness of 4.0 mm. Each plate
consisted of 12 plies laminated with the fabric
principal directions aligned to the plate axes
([(0,90),2]).
After cure, all plates were ultrasonically
inspected before being cut into bending and void
content specimens. The void content was
measured according to ASTM standard D2734 to
correlate the results to the ultrasonic attenuation.
Fifteen specimens with dimensions 150.0
mm x 10.0 m m x 4.0 mm were cut from each plate
to evaluate the effect of void content on the flexu-
ral strength of the material. Five of these speci-
mens were used to measure the static flexural
strength according to ASTM standard D790-M.
The other 10 specimens were used to characterize
the S-N curve under flexural loading.
2.1 Fabrication of the specimens
One of the key points in this experimental pro-
gram is the ability to produce composite plates
with deliberately high void contents. It is also
desirable to obtain a distribution of porosities in
the plate as uniform as possible.
According to Browning5 voids are formed in a
laminate when the pressure applied to the liquid
resin is lower than the opposing vapor pressure of
moisture entrapped in the laminate. Browning
also noted that the pressure effectively applied on
the resin phase can be quite different from that
applied to the laminate lay-up.
Bowles and Frimpong3 produced AS4 gra-
phite/PMR-15 composite specimens with void
contents in the range 0-10% by varying the cure
pressure. Stone and Clarke 6 controlled the auto-
clave pressure P0 and the vacuum bag internal
pressure Pi to produce carbon/epoxy laminates
with high void content. By varying Pi while hold-
ing (P0-Pi) constant, they were able to produce
reasonably uniform panels with void content in
the range 0.5-4.0%.
A different approach was used in this work to
produce laminates with high void content. The
 Effect of void content on strength of composite laminates
effective pressure on the liquid resin was varied by
constructing a bag system that traps the resin
forming a hydraulic cell, as suggested by Brown-
ing.5 The bag system used is schematically shown
in Fig. 1.
The laminates were molded between two steel
plates separated by 4.0-mm-thick mechanical
stops. With this procedure, the autoclave pressure
is not directly applied on the laminate after its
nominal thickness is reached. From this point on,
the effective pressure on the liquid resin is con-
trolled by the area available to the resin to flow
out of the mold. Figure 2 shows two types of
arrangements of restrictions to the resin flow used
to produce laminates with high void content. In
the first arrangement, the exit area is large; there-
fore, the effective pressure is low and the laminate
is likely to have a high void content. In the second
arrangement, the exit area is smaller, the effective
pressure is higher and a lower void content is
expected.
The restrictions to the resin flow shown in Fig.
2 were implemented using vacuum bag sealant.
All the arrangements of restrictions used in this
work were symmetric in order to yield plates with
a reasonably uniform distribution of porosities.
The adopted fabrication procedure has the
advantage of providing excellent control over the
PLATE
I,EC.STOP
AN,CAL
LAMINATE
PLATE
Fig. 1. Molding of laminates with high void content (front
view).
LAMINATE WITH HIGH
VOID CONTENT
MECHANICAL STOP /
R.ESTRICTIONS
~t ~~-~__~///~--/~j_~ i~-
LAMINATE WITH LOW
VOID CONTENT
Fig. 2. Molding of laminates with high void content (top
view).
141
final thickness and fiber volume content of the
laminate.
Three plates were molded using the procedure
described above to produce high void content
laminates. One plate was produced using the usual
vacuum bag/autoclave process 2 to yield a low
void content laminate to be used as a reference of
good quality laminate.
2.2 Ultrasonic inspection
All plates were inspected using an ultrasonic failure
detector REFLECTOSCOPE $80 with a 5 MHz
transmitter type AUTOMATION X19625 and a
receiver AUTOMATION X19267. Water squir-
ters were used to transport the ultrasonic beams
as shown in Fig. 3 in order to reduce surface
losses. The plates were mounted mid-way
between probes that were carefully aligned so that
the transmitted signal was a maximum. The
probes were transported by a AUTOMATION
US640 system that generates a quantized C-scan
record of the plate.
The total attenuation in db due to the specimen
is given by: 6
- 201og (-~2) = Af + Ab + At = A. r (1)
where:
V2 is the transmitted signal voltage (V)
V~ is received signal voltage (V)
Af is the front surface loss (db)
A b is the back surface loss (db)
A t is the transmission loss through the speci-
men (db)
A t is the total attenuation due to the specimen
(db)
According to Stone and Clarke, 6 A f and A b are
independent on the condition of the panel, apart
from its surface finish, and would be expected to
be constant for plates of different thicknesses.
H o w e v e r , A t may be assumed to increase linearly
with the plate thickness t and with the absorption
coefficient a.6 That is:
At=at (2)
where a is measured in db/mm and depends on
the internal condition of the CFRP material, espe-
cially on the void content. 6
Before each test, a calibration procedure was
carried out. A void-free CFRP specimen was
tested and the transmitted signal voltage 112 was
 142 S(rgio Frascino Mailer de Almeida, Zabulon dos Santos Nogueira Neto
C-scan Recorder

~ .---~Rasli
t_ Tank

Fig. 3. Ultrasonicinspectioneqmpment.

set to compensate for surface losses such that a
specimen with no thickness losses would result in
a received signal voltage V0 = 10 V. Therefore,
after calibration:
At = at= - 2O log (-~o) (3)
where V0 = 10 V is the reference voltage.
In the generated C-scan record, a symbol is
plotted, according to Table 1, depending on the
local value of the received signal voltage V I . Each
symbol represents the average attenuation over a
small area of the plate. Since the distribution of
porosities in the plate is not perfectly uniform, it is
natural to expect that the C-scan records will con-
tain a number of different symbols plotted. A n
averaging procedure was used in this work to
characterize the statistical distribution of the
ultrasonic attenuation measurements expressed
by the C-scan records.
Each plate was divided into four regions of
equal size for the averaging procedure. A rectan-
gular sample area of 15 m m x 22 m m was taken at
the center of each region, containing a mesh of
15 x 15 symbols. The mean value and standard
deviation of the attenuation level were computed
using the numerical values of all symbols inside
each sample area (the symbols 'blank' and ':',
shown in Table 2, did not appear in any of the
C-scan records analyzed in this work). A n F-test 7
was carried out to test the hypothesis that the
means of the four populations were the same. The
distribution of porosites in the plate was assumed
to be uniform if this hypothesis could be accepted
in an 80% test. In this case the mean value of the
four populations was called the average attenua-
tion level of the plate, 6. The symbols shown in
Table 2 were associated with the transmission
losses through the specimen A t (db) using the
mid-range value of V~ and eqn (3). For each aver-
age attenuation level 6 there is a corresponding
 Effect of void content on strength of composite laminates 143

Table 2. Symbols plotted in the C-scan record and corre- Table 3. Average attenuation level and absorption coeffi-
sponding transmission losses values A t cient measurements

Plotted Voltage range for the At Plate Attenuationmean

symbol received signal, V~ (db) value Average Absorption
attenuation coefficient
Blank 10-00-9.58 0.18 Region level, 6 a
: 9.58-8.64 0.81 (db/mm)
1 8.64-7-75 1.73 1 I1 III IV
2 7.75-7.02 2.63
3 7.02-6.27 3.55 1 1"1 1'1 1-1 1'1 1"1 0"45
4 6.27-5.49 4.61 2 3"8 3"6 3"5 3"9 3"7 1"05
5 5-49-4.74 5.82 3 4"2 4"1 4'1 4"4 4"2 1"23
6 4.74-3.88 7.31 4 4"9 4"8 4'7 4"9 4"8 1"40
7 3.88-3.04 9.22
8 3.04-2.26 11.54
9 2.26-1.36 14-85 Table 4. Fiber fraction in volume, Vf (%)
10 1.36-0.64 20.00
11 0.64-0.00 29.90 Plate Specimen Average
1 2 3 4 5

1 61"4 61"4 61-9 61'5 61-6 61"6

2 60"5 61.7 61"5 62'2 61-7 61"5
3 59'5 60"4 61"3 60"0 61"3 60"5
7
4 59"7 59"3 60"4 59-4 60"3 59"8
n2
6

Table 5. Void content, Vv (%)

Plate Specimen Average

[9
1 2 3 4 5
o
~ 3-

1 1"39 1"28 1"46 1'22 1"33 1"34

o
m
2 2 4.26 4"33 4"34 3"83 4"32 4"22
3 5"41 5"78 5"37 5-12 4.87 5"31
4 5.81 6"02 5"69 6"06 5"74 5"86

Average Attenuation hevel,~
Fig. 4. Absorptioncoefficient a (db/mm) as a function of
the averageattenuation level 6 for a 4.0-mm-thickplate.
transmission loss At obtained by interpolating the
values in Table 2. Figure 4 shows the absorption
coefficient ct computed from eqn (3) as a function
of the average attenuation level 6 for a 4.0-mm-
thick plate.
Table 3 shows the mean values computed for
each region, the average attenuation level, and the
absorption coefficient obtained for each plate.
These results demonstrate that the fabrication
procedure used in this work yields plates with a
reasonably uniform distribution of porosities.
2.3 Void content measurements
Five specimens from each plate were tested
according to A S T M standard D2734. T h e
measured values of fiber fraction in volume and
void content are given in Tables 4 and 5, respect-
ively. These results indicate that the fabrication
procedure used yields reasonably uniform plates.
The void content of each laminate is plotted in
Fig. 5 as a function of the absorption coefficient. A
linear correlation between the void content and
the ultra sound absorption coefficient can be
observed as previously noted by Stone and
Clarke. 6 Figure 6 shows a lateral view of a speci-
men with high void content.
2.4 Four-point bending tests
The influence of void content on the flexural
strength of CFRP laminates was assessed by test-
ing five specimens from each plate according to
ASTM standard D790-M. T h e tests were per-
formed using INSTRON 4206 equipment with a
loading speed of 2 mm/min. The dimensions of
the specimens were (150-0 x 10-0 x 4"0) mm.
The four-point loading system utilized had a
load span •=42.7 m m and support span L = 3l
144 S&gio Frascino Miiller de Almeida, Zabulon dos Santos Nogueira Neto

Table 6. Measured flexural strength

Plate Absorption Failure stress, o t { M P a } Average

6 coefficicnt.
a 1 2 3 4 5
cdb/mm)
5 0
1 0"45 1403 1451 1457 1416 1388 1423
£ 2 1'05 1319 1360 126(t 1274 1357 1314
4 @-
5 3 1"23 119t) 1219 1280 1209 1177 1215
// 4 1"40 1167 1257 1138 1263 12(16
/
<D
/
2 O /
in its fatigue fife. In order to investigate
such effect, specimens taken from plates 1, 2, and
I O-
4 were tested under fatigue loading. A flexural
I loading was applied to each specimen in a Bald-
1 [ [ 1
@ 25 0 500 75 i O0 i 25 i 50
win SF-01-U machine, using a frequency of 30 Hz
and a stress ratio R = 0.1.
Absorption Coefflczent,@(db/mm)
Ten specimens from each plate were tested
Fig. 5. Void content V, as a function of the absorption until final failure at four different load levels.
coefficient a.
Three specimens were tested for each of the three
highest load levels. Only one specimen was tested
at the lowest load level that was chosen such that
no failure would occur for 10 ~' cycles.
A normalized stress S was defined for each
plate and load level as the ratio between the maxi-
mum stress applied and the static flexural strength
of the particular plate given in Table 6; that is:

S = O'max (5)
of

Table 7 gives the experimental results for all

specimens tested. It was observed that all speci-
Fig. 6. Lateral view of a specimen with high void content mens presented significant stiffness loss at a
( x 5o).
certain point, quickly followed by final failure.

= 128.1 mm. Therefore, the maximum stress o in

MPA at the outer surface of the specimen is: 3 FRACTURE ANALYSIS

PL It is difficult to predict theoretically the effect of

o=~t2=O'8P
where t=4.0 m m is the specimen thickness,
b = 10 mm is the specimen width, and P is the
load in N.
Failure occurred at the compression side for all
specimens tested. Table 6 shows the measured
flexural strength of the laminates in terms of the
maximum stress at the outer surface, of, at failure.
2.5 Fatigue tests
The existing voids in a laminate may propagate
under the action of cyclic loads causing a decrease
(4) voids on the strength of composite laminates
because of their irregular shape and distribution.
It is well known that composite laminates have the
ability to withstand the presence of high stress
concentrations over limited regions# "9 Therefore,
a fracture theory for composite laminates contain-
ing voids must take the material toughness and the
void content into account.
Bowles and Frimpong 3 described an early
attempt to determine the effect of voids on the
interlaminar shear strength of composite lami-
nates developed by Greszczuk. He assumed a
regular distribution of voids and considered a
cubic array of spherical voids and a rectangular
 Effect of void content on strength of composite laminates 145

Table 7. Fatigue tests results

Plate Absorption Omax Normalized Cycles to failure

coefficient, (MPa) stress,
a S 1 2 3 Average
(db/mm)
1 0-45 763 0"536 14000 16000 19000 16 300
1 0"45 667 0'469 58 000 84 000 73 000 71700
1 0"45 619 0"435 132 000 109 000 160 000 133 700
1 0"45 572 0"402 > 106 -- _ > 10 6
2 1"05 763 0"580 4 000 4 000 5 000 4 300
2 1"05 667 0"508 26 000 37 000 28 000 30 300
2 1"05 619 0-471 86 000 51 000 30 000 55 700
2 1"05 524 0"399 > 106 -- _ > 106
4 1'40 763 0"632 3 000 3 000 4 000 3 300
4 1"40 667 0"553 10000 12 000 11000 11000
4 1"40 572 0-474 44 000 52 000 68 000 54 700
4 1-40 476 0"395 > 106 -- _ > 106

array of cylindrical voids. Using a strength of the laminate. T h e determination of the m i n i m u m

materials approach, neglecting stress concentra-
tions, he obtained closed-form expressions for the
interlaminar shear strength as a function of the
void and fiber content. However, the correlation
between both models and experimental results
was poor. a, 10 This is a consequence of the geo-
metrical representation assumed for the voids that
is not realistic and the absence of the material
toughness in the formulation.
In order to analyze the role of the laminate
toughness, consider each individual void causing a
high stress concentration limited to a small neigh-
b o r h o o d of the void. Since composite laminates
have the ability to withstand high stresses acting
over small regions, the strength of a laminate with
high void content over a small area is unaffected
by the existence of such defect. Moreover, a
laminate with void content below a critical value
over a large area will not have its strength
decreased by the presence of the voids. This fact
was experimentally observed by Tang et al. 1~ O n
the other hand, a void content above the critical
value over a sufficiently large area will trigger
fracture at a load level lower than that of a lami-
nate free of voids.
T h e above discussion emphasizes the fact that
void content is a measurement intrinsically asso-
ciated with a certain area rather than with a point.
Its effect on laminate strength depends on the size
of the area over which it exists. T h e laminates pro-
duced for the experimental part of this work have
approximately uniform distribution of porosities,
as shown in Table 5. Therefore, this work deals
only with the determination of the m a x i m u m void
content acceptable over relatively large areas of
area over which a high void content will cause
degradation of the laminate strength is not
addressed in this work.
Ultrasonic inspection was used in this work to
measure void content, but it does not characterize
the shape and size of individual flaws in the lami-
nate. T h e measured ultrasonic attenuation is an
average value over the area sensed by the receiver.
This area may contain a n u m b e r of voids of differ-
ent sizes and shapes that will cause a net signal
attenuation. T h e averaging p r o c e d u r e used in this
work results in the expected attenuation level
caused by the voids in the sample area. T h e exper-
imental results obtained indicate that such value is
linearly related to the percentage of voids in the
laminate. For quality control purposes, a fracture
criterion should be based u p o n this value that can
be experimentally measured.
Several fracture criteria have been proposed
for computing the strength of notched lami-
nates. 4,8,9 Such criteria take into account the
fracture toughness of the material. However, they
were developed for the analysis of a laminate with
a dominant notch or crack and are not directly
applicable to the case of laminates containing
voids. Whitney and Nuismer 8 and Waddoups et
al. 9 p r o p o s e d macroscopic criteria that involve
characteristic lengths m u c h larger than the typical
size of a void. Therefore, these criteria are not
meaningful for the case of laminates containing
voids.
Mar and L i n 4 p r o p o s e d a microscopic theory
which postulates that fracture of filamentary com-
posites initiates at a crack lying in the matrix
material at the interface of the matrix/filament.
146 SOrgio Frascino Mailer de Almeida, Zabulon dos Santos Nogueira Neto

They showed that the strength of the laminate

120 -
correlates with the singularity at the tip of the
crack, which is at the interface of two different iiO- ss 125(cx) o 3S
= - •

materials. 4 They proposed the following equation Oa

for the fracture stress o F of a filamentary com- ~O
I00-
posite laminate with a circular notch of diameter
2a: 90-

o F = n ( 2 a ) -m (6) 80-
0J
to
where H characterizes the laminate toughness,
tO 70-
and the exponent - m is the order of the singular-
ity of a crack with its tip at the interface of two
different materials. They also showed that - m
I
depends on the ratio of the shear moduli of the
two materials and on their poisson ratios. For
carbon/epoxy laminates they obtained a theoreti- 40
cal value of m = 0.28. For the same material used 0
in this work, Soriano ~2 experimentally obtained Absorption Coef ficient,C<db/mm)

m=0.315. Fig. 7. lnterlaminar shear strength of carbon/epoxy

The Mar-Lin criterion can be modified for the laminates as a function of absorption coefficient a ?
analysis of composite laminates with voids assum-
ing that: 1500
cO

(7)
1400
where of is the fracture stress; H is the laminate e>~
toughness; a is the absorption coefficient in db/ 1300.
mm; and - m is the order of the stress singularity. ~
Equation (7) predicts infinite strength for a 03
1200-
void-free laminate. Therefore, the criterion must
be rewritten as: 110o.

O< : c r i t

Iof0 if a S a , I000

of = [H(a)_ m if a >--a~ (8)
where of0 is the fracture stress of a laminate with
low void content; and a . is the critical value of
the absorption coefficient obtained from:
log a . = - - - log (9)
m The tlexural strength data given in Table 6 was
The proposed criterion, represented by eqn (8),
implies that below a critical value (corresponding
to the critical absorption coefficient a . ) the void
content does not affect the laminate strength. This
characteristic of the proposed criterion is sup-
ported by the physical reasoning previously pre-
sented and experimental data} ~
The proposed criterion was applied to the
experimental data obtained by Stone and Clarke 6
on the influence of void content on the inter-
laminar shear strength of carbon/epoxy laminates.
Figure 7 shows the excellent fit of eqn (8) to the
0 0.'2 014 016 0 8 I.'0 112 I.'4 1.6
Absorption Coefficient, O¢(dh/mm)
Fig. 8. Flexural strength of carbon/epoxy laminates as a
function of absorption coefficient a. ov = 1321 a - ° 3 ° t
experimental data for m = 0.35, H = 125 MPa (db/
mm) °'35, and act = 0"875 db/mm.
also used with the proposed criterion. A best fit
procedure yielded m = 0.305, H = 1321 MPa (db/
mm) °'s°s, and acr=0"783 db/mm. This value of
acr corresponds to a void content of 3-0%. The
correlation between experimental and theoretical
data is depicted in Fig. 8.
Figures 7 and 8 show that the proposed crite-
rion predicts well the effect of void content on the
shear and flexural strength of carbon/epoxy lami-
nates. Good correlation was also obtained for the
tensile strength of carbon/epoxy laminates with
circular notches using the Mar-Lin theory) 2 For
all these cases, the value of m was experimentally
 Effect of void content on strength of composite laminates
found to be in the interval 0.30-0.35. Since all
specimens tested in this work for flexural strength
failed on the compression side, the values
obtained for m from the three different sets of
experimental data considered correspond to com-
pression, shear, and tension loads. The fact of m
being close to the theoretical value for three
different types of loading corroborates with the
basic assumption of the Mar-Lin theory that frac-
ture initiates at a crack lying in the matrix material
at the interface of the matrix/filament.
The proposed criterion does not correlate well
with the experimental data obtained by Tang et
al. 11 and Bowles. 3 This happens because they
produced laminates with different values of void
content by varying the cure pressure. As a con-
sequence, their specimens have different values of
fiber fraction. Therefore, their experimental
results represent the combined effect of void con-
tent and fiber fraction on the mechanical proper-
ties of carbon/epoxy laminates. Of course, the
fiber fraction affects the laminate toughness H
that cannot be assumed to be constant in this case.
4 FATIGUE ANALYSIS
The experimental results obtained in this work
indicate that voids in composite laminates may
propagate under flexural cyclic loading having a
detrimental effect on the expected life of the
specimen. Figure 9 depicts the experimental data
from Table 7, fatigue life N as a function of the
normalized stress S. It is readily apparent from the
figure that a linear relation between log N and S
fits the experimental data with good accuracy.
Moreover, three straight lines that are practically
coincident are obtained if a best fit procedure is
1.o "-...
O3 "--
- 08 ¸ """"-....,.. ""'--,
0 voids in the laminate. Figure 10 shows the value
0 .6¸
'U
oJ
0.4-.
0.2-
z
0 It can be seen from Fig. 10 that there is a signi-
0° l0~ lb' lb'
Fatigue Life,
Fig. 9. Fatigue life under flexuralloadingN as a functionof
the normalized stress S.
147
applied to the data from each plate. This means
that the relation between fatigue life N and norm-
alized stress S may be assumed to be approxi-
mately independent on the void content.
Using a best fit procedure, the following rela-
tion is obtained between the normalized stress S
and fatigue life N:
log N=9-1 (1-00- S) (10)
From eqns (5), (8) and (10), the expected
fatigue life of a specimen with void content corre-
sponding to a value below the critical absorption
coefficient acr is given by:
log 0:91(100 ,11,
where N o is the expected fatigue life of a specimen
with absorption coefficient below the critical
value, that is, a-< acr; em~xis the maximum applied
flexural stress; and trf0 is the flexural strength
under static load of a specimen with absorption
coefficient below the critical value acr.
Similarly, the fatigue life of a specimen with
absorption coefficient above the critical value,
a >- acr can be estimated from:
•'max "/
log N--9"l 1"00 H(a)_m] (12)
where H is the laminate toughness and m is the
order of the stress singularity.
The accuracy of eqns (11) and (12) can be
assessed by substituting the values of H and m
obtained experimentally in those equations. It can
be easily verified that there is excellent agreement
between the experimental values of fatigue life
and the estimates provided by eqns (11) and (12).
Therefore, those equations may be used to esti-
mate the effect of void content on the fatigue life
of laminates subjected to flexural loading.
• PLATE i
The ratio N / N o may be used to quantify the
oxPLATEPLATE
32 loss in the expected life due to the existence of
of N/No as a function of the absorption coefficient
a for different values of load Om~x. The curves in
Fig. 10 were obtained from eqns (11) and (12)
using H = 1 3 2 1 MPa (db/mm) °'3°5, m=0"305,
ae0 -- 1423 Mpa and acr -- 0"783 db/mm.
lb' l'05 106 ficant loss in the expected fatigue life for speci-
I~ mens with absorption coefficient above the
critical value. The decrease in fatigue life is much
more severe than the decrease in the static
148 S~rgio Frascino Mailer de Almeida, Zabulon dos Santos Nogueira Neto
1.2
1.0
0,6-
0, 2-
I
0.5 i.O i 5 2,0 2~5
Absorption C o e f f i c i e n t . C~ (db/mm)
Fig. 10. Loss in the expected fatigue life as a function of
the absorption coefficient a.
strength. If a specimen with a = 1.5 db/mm is
taken as an example, a decrease of 18% in its
static flexural strength is predicted by eqn (8), but
its expected fatigue life is reduced by a factor of
10 according to eqns ( 11 ) and (12).
Fatigue life N can be improved by using a
higher safety factor in design, that is, using a lower
value for OmJOf0. However, Fig. 10 shows that a
large safety factor is required to increase signifi-
cantly the fatigue life. Of course, this solution
greatly penalizes the weight and cost of the struc-
ture. Therefore, when designing composite parts
subjected to flexural fatigue loading it is prefer-
able to specify a maximum allowable void content
below the critical value such that a < act.
5 CONCLUSIONS
A criterion to estimate the effect of void content
on the strength of composite laminates has been
presented. Good correlation with experimental
results of interlaminar shear and flexural strength
of carbon/epoxy laminates was obtained. Further
work on this subject should include the effect of
voids on the compressive strength of composite
laminates. Also, the effect of laminate thickness
and lamina orientation on the laminate toughness
H should be investigated.
The fatigue analysis presented was based upon
a limited number of experimental data. However,
excellent agreement between the present theory
and experimental results was obtained. Even
though more data is needed to support the present
theory,At can be used qualitatively to indicate that
voids may have a strong detrimental effect on the
fatigue life of composite structures if the void con-
tent is above a critical value.
In terms of design composite structures, the
present theory provides a tool for predicting the
decrease in the static strength and fatigue life of
composite laminates in the presence of voids.
Moreover, the theory may also provide the basis
for an experimental program aimed at determin-
ing the maximum allowable absorption coefficient
of a composite laminate for a specific loading con-
dition. This procedure establishes an objective
inspection criterion for the structure.
3,0
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This work was partially financed by CNPq
through grant number 62.0314/91-5. The authors
acknowledge EMBRAER for the manufacturing
and inspection of the specimens.
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