Composites Part C: Open Access 5 (2021) 100131

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Composites Part C: Open Access

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jcomc

A review on aircraft spectra simplification techniques for composite

structures
Rowan Healey a,∗, John Wang b, Wing Kong Chiu a, Nabil M. Chowdhury a, Alan Baker b,c,
Chris Wallbrink b
a
Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia
b
Aerospace Division, Defence Science and Technology Group, Melbourne, Australia
c
Advanced Composites Structures Australia, Melbourne, Australia

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Keywords: Variable amplitude fatigue testing is a time consuming process and a necessary part of certification for aircraft
Composites structures. While the frequency of loading can be increased for testing metals, for composites this approach is
Durability limited due to heating effects. Hence it is more pertinent to develop effective methods for reducing/compressing
Fatigue load spectra
fatigue test spectra for composite structures. Effective spectrum reduction techniques mainly include a spectrum
Spectra simplification
truncation method which removes load cycles that negligibly effect fatigue damage initiation/growth, and a
cycle merging method that combines cycles to form a cycle with the equivalent effect on fatigue damage initia-
tion/growth. Application of these methods requires understanding of the fatigue mechanisms. These techniques
have seen wide use for metallic structures, with comparatively small amounts of literature existing for composite
materials. For composites this is more complex due to their non-isotropic, non-homogeneous, multi-failure mode
characters. Due to the lack of research concerning spectrum reduction for composites, there are no widely ac-
cepted simplification approaches with the exception of omitting low stress levels. Research is therefore required
to develop and test methods for accelerating variable amplitude fatigue tests for composite aircraft structures.
On the basis of review of literature, new research directions in this area are identified.

1. Introduction
Fibre reinforced polymer composites are replacing metallic mate-
rials in parts of aircraft structures due to their light-weight and high
stiffness characteristics, such as the fuselage of the Boeing 787 Dream-
liner, the outer and centre wing box, fuselage and the empennage from
the Airbus A350 XWB airframe and full aircraft frame structure of Tiger
ARH and MRH90 helicopters. This has presented additional challenges
when considering aircraft structure certification as the damage mecha-
nisms exhibited by composite materials differ significantly from those of
metallic materials. Understanding of such mechanisms is necessary not
only for certification of composite aircraft structures but also in devel-
oping approaches for through-life support, setting inspectional intervals
and also providing repair/reject criteria [1,2]. Rigorous test programs
are required at the aircraft design and certification stage as well, as dur-
ing aircraft service an understanding of the composites behaviour and
their fatigue characteristics ensures safe operation and prolongs their
service life. During the design stage criteria are established along with
allowable part strength and margins of safety. Testing the performance
of materials and components assists in the creation of design allowables,
ensuring the aircraft will pass the qualification and certification program
[3]. Sufficient component, subcomponent, element or coupon tests are
required to establish the fatigue scatter and environmental effects, fur-
ther increasing the experimental load. As such it is desirable to reduce
the length of these spectra through understanding the fatigue mecha-
nisms of composites.
Following the completion of all test requirements an aircraft is then
put into service, where it is maintained through inspection, maintenance
and repair procedures. Both the safe-life and fail-safe designs must be
considered so that fatigue evaluation considers the structures resistance
to crack initiation as well as its resistance to fatigue damage growth
until catastrophic failure [3].
For certification testing procedures, variable amplitude fatigue spec-
tra are taken from in-service structures (Fig. 1). However these se-
quences consist of many turning points which leads to long test times
and significant expenses. Accelerating fatigue tests by increasing the
test frequency isn’t as applicable to composites as it is metals due to
the heating effects which significantly impacts the durability of poly-
meric matrices [4,5]. While the omission/truncation of low amplitude
load levels is acceptable if they are proven not to contribute to dam-

∗
Corresponding author.
E-mail address: rowan.healey1@monash.edu (R. Healey).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcomc.2021.100131
Received 25 October 2020; Received in revised form 13 January 2021; Accepted 1 March 2021
2666-6820/© 2021 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
R. Healey, J. Wang, W.K. Chiu et al.
Fig. 1. Mission profile broken up into the component stress spectrum [6].
age growth [1], the possible influence these levels may have on fatigue
mechanisms beckons for the confirmation of truncations applicability
for individual composite structures.
There are considerable amounts of literature which examine and de-
velop techniques for compressing fatigue spectra for testing metals [7–
16], while comparatively limited work addresses the implementation of
such techniques for composite materials [17–21]. Several techniques are
routinely implemented for metallic materials however their applicabil-
ity to composites is largely unknown. Depending on the technique im-
plemented the level of fatigue mechanism knowledge required between
metals and composites differs. However as application of spectrum re-
duction techniques to composite materials is in its infancy, very little
literature demonstrates use of these techniques. Hence this review aims
to highlight the need for a larger transition of techniques which have
seen success in metallic materials over to composite materials.
This paper will provide a review of literature concerning fatigue
spectrum reduction techniques, first detailing the prevalent methods ap-
plied to metals specifying their uses and applicability. The use of said
techniques with composite materials will then be examined, highlight-
ing the need for further research into possible limitations of reduction
methods based on the significant differences between composites and
metals. The review is further extended to the damage mechanisms of
composite materials that are required for establishing effective spectrum
reduction methods for fatigue composite structures.
2. Spectra simplification for metallic materials
This section will detail several methods provided by literature in
the context of metals including: rainflow counting which extracts cycles
from a variable fatigue load spectrum into an equivalent set of simple
cycles for further processing, a spectrum truncation method which re-
moves those load cycles that have negligible effect on fatigue damage,
and a cycle merging method that creates single cycles to represent the
damage contributions of many smaller cycles. In metals, the high ampli-
tude loads are typically clipped to avoid the influence of crack retarda-
tion, which would non-conservatively extend fatigue life. The clipping
approach is also considered in this review.
2.1. Rainflow counting
Rainflow counting tallies reversals according to a material’s
stress/strain association, enabling complex loading sequences with
stress reversals to be consistently accounted for. The technique was first
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Composites Part C: Open Access 5 (2021) 100131
described by Tatsuo Endo and M. Matsuishi [22, 23], with Downing and
Socie proceeding to develop a more widely known and implemented
algorithm [24]. Rainflow counting is a technique which has seen util-
isation when performing spectra simplification and therefore requires
discussion. Two common algorithms are described below as well as the
Rainflow matrix, the output of Rainflow counting.
2.1.1. Pagoda method
The Pagoda method was first proposed by Matsuishi and Endo
[23] and constituted the first rainflow counting method and has since
led to the creation of several different rainflow algorithms [24–30]. The
load history is first converted in to a series of peaks and valley as shown
in Fig. 2a, and the plot is then rotated 90° clockwise.
Firstly, rainflows start at each peak and valley. When a rainflow path
which commenced at a valley reaches the tip of the roof (peak), the flow
will stop if the opposing valley is further to the left than that of the flows
valley of origin (shown in Fig. 2c).
Flows which initiate from peaks are halted by peaks which are posi-
tioned more to the right than the starting flows peak (shown in Fig. 2b).
If the flow proceeding downwards intercepts flow of an earlier path then
the present flow is stopped.
When counting half cycles terminations are sought after when a flow;
reaches the end of the time history, it merges with a flow beginning at
an earlier tensile peak, or it flows when an opposing tensile peak has
greater magnitude. This counting results in half cycles of valley and
peak generated stress ranges.
The Pagoda method requires that the entirety of the load history be
input at once, resulting in notable data storage requirements. This lim-
itation was overcome through further development by Okamura et al.
[26] and Downing and Scoie [24] who utilised a three-point criteria to
access the input spectrum in real-time to identify full and half rainflow
cycles.
2.1.2. Four-point method
The four-point method was presented by Amzallag et al. [31] who
proposed a rainflow methodology and its use for fatigue analysis follow-
ing consultation with authors from various industries. Amzallag et al.
realised that practical application of rainflow counting varied wildly,
noting that the same terms possessed several different meanings or pro-
cedures, motivating an overview to optimise the procedures. As a result
the four-point method is the most unambiguous criterion at identifying
closed hysteresis loops [32].
However, McInnes and Meehan [33] demonstrated equivalence be-
tween the three-point method as presented by Bannantine et al. [34] and
the four-point algorithm developed by Amzallag et al., noting the only
difference between the outcomes of the algorithms was the order in
which the hysteresis loops were listed as output.
Points are evaluated in sets of four consecutive turning points (eg.
A-B-C-D as shown in Fig. 3). The following algorithm is performed:
(1) Any pair B-C which resides within the bounds of A-D is considered
a rainflow cycle.
(2) Rainflow cycle pair B-C is removed and the sequence is re-evaluated
from the beginning.
(3) Repeat Steps 1 & 2 until no further rainflow cycles can be identified.
If the simple example displayed in Fig. 3 was the entirety of a load
sequence then the result of performing the four point method would be
one full cycle (B-C-B) and one half cycle (A–D).
Xiong and Shenoi [9] utilised this approach to determine the ampli-
tude and mean of the rainflow cycles when presenting load cycle identi-
fication criteria and equivalent damage calculations . For the four points
A, B, C and D as shown in Fig. 4, the following must be true:
|𝑥 − 𝑥 | ≤ |𝑥 − 𝑥 | (1)
| 𝐶 𝐵| | 𝐵 𝐴|
|𝑥𝐶 − 𝑥𝐵 | ≤ |𝑥𝐷 − 𝑥𝐶 | (2)
| | | |
R. Healey, J. Wang, W.K. Chiu et al. Composites Part C: Open Access 5 (2021) 100131

Fig. 2. Application of Pagoda method to the load history displayed in (a); counting for tensile peaks (b); count for compressive valley (c). Where the red line
represents the load history, while the blue lines depict the rainflow paths.

Fig. 3. Application of the four-point rainflow method to sequence A-B-C-D.

Fig. 4. Representative load cycle: (a) hanging load cycle (b) standing load cycle.

3
R. Healey, J. Wang, W.K. Chiu et al.
Fig. 5. Rainflow matrix as a result of applying the Pagoda method to the load
history in Fig. 2a.
Where the amplitude and mean of the corresponding load cycle are
|𝑥 − 𝑥 |
𝜎𝑎 = |
𝐶 𝐵|
(3)
2 the length of the test sequence and therefore reducing the time taken
𝑥𝐶 + 𝑥𝐵
𝜎𝑚 = (4)
2
The cycle comprised of reversal points B and C is referred to as a hanging
load cycle if xB > xC , which corresponds to a peak-valley arrangement.
While the case of xB < xC or valley-peak is known as a standing load
cycle.
Xiong and Shenoi [9] classified the load cycles which are composed
through the rainflow counting method into three cycle categories: main,
secondary and carrier. Main cycles refer to the relatively low occurrence
large load cycles which likely inflict significant amounts of damage and
therefore should be retained throughout the reduction process. Original
histories are commonly comprised of large quantities of small ampli-
tude cycles which will likely contributed correspondingly small amounts
of fatigue damage, these cycles are referred to as carrier cycles, which
could be removed (truncated) from the spectrum. Secondary cycles refer
to those that have a less significant effect on fatigue damage than the
main cycles but the effect is not negligible. These cycles can be merged
to reduce the number of cycles. The process by which Xiong et al. ac-
complished this will be discussed in Section 2.3.
2.1.3. Rainflow matrix
Before counting can be performed the following filtering processes
must be performed; peak-valley and discretization.
Peak-valley filtering removes all data which isn’t a peak or a val-
ley thereby retaining data points which are reversals in slope. This is
because only the maximum and minimum values will be necessary for
fatigue life calculations, hence unnecessary data can be omitted. The
resulting output is referred to as a ‘turning point sequence’.
Discretization splits the load axis into a discrete series of ‘bins’.
Where each bin comprises a fixed amplitude range to which data is
mapped to, this is done to enable the counting process [24]. The ampli-
tude of the data points is manipulated such that they are all centred in
their bins, meaning sufficient bins should be established to reduce the
amount of amplitude altering. Following the completion of the afore-
mentioned steps the counting method can be implemented.
A magnitude is assigned to each half cycle equal to the difference in
stress between the starting and stopping position. Half cycles of match-
ing magnitude and opposing sense are paired to count the total number
of complete cycles. For a sufficiently long load history, each half cycle
generated by a valley will match a peak generated half cycle resulting
in the formation of a whole cycle.
The result of the rainflow counting method is ultimately the rainflow
matrix and residue, containing information such as; cycle amplitude,
cycle mean and number of cycles (Fig. 5) [35].
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Composites Part C: Open Access 5 (2021) 100131
Khosrovaneh and Dowling [35] utilised the rainflow matrix to recon-
struct a fatigue load history through proposed algorithms such that the
reconstructed sequence would have an identical rainflow matrix to the
original, while the fatigue life under the reconstruction was expected to
be similar to the original.
Fatigue damage can be calculated with a S-N curve and Miner’s rule
alongside the rainflow matrix cycles, enabling the prediction of fatigue
failure. However as the original position of each turning point in the
load history is disregarded when performing the described algorithms,
load sequence effects are not considered. Approaches to maintain the
load sequence effect when a compressed spectrum is reconstructed have
been developed in recent years which will be reviewed in the following
sections. Alternative rainflow counting algorithms have also been de-
veloped to retain/consider the load sequence [29,30].
2.2. Truncation
Truncation or elimination of cycles in a fatigue spectra is performed
by omitting cycles which have minimal impact to the durability of the
tested specimens. While truncation does provide the benefit of reducing
to perform a test, the trade-off is that the damage of each pass of the
spectrum is decreased. Ideally the removal process will condense the
spectrum down to a small fraction of its original size while only minutely
changing the damage dealt by the spectrum.
2.2.1. General overview
A variety of different criteria are used to remove low damage cy-
cles including: the construction of a stress sequence proceeded by re-
moval of the lowest load level followed by sequence reconstruction,
gating/filtering which maintains sequence effects by removal based on
stress, strain or load range [15]. Specific gating methods can implement
indexed rainflow cycle counting to improve the accuracy of the damage
attribution with peak/valley pairs. Again, these techniques are restricted
by the amount of damage loss that is tolerated.
The process of truncation can be guided by the knowledge of the
damage each cycle within a sequence contributes, meaning that while
cycles can simply be ranked by damage and then removed based on con-
tribution. Cycles can also be omitted based on their size (peak-peak) and
the intentionally deleted damage can be reintroduced into the sequence
by scaling the load.
It is common for turning points to be removed by the selection of
an omission level which is usually a percentage of the endurance limit
[10], maximum load [11] or the load level range [12,13]. This means
truncation can be performed without any knowledge of the materials
damage mechanisms, though in the case of the endurance limit, stress-
life data curves are required.
Hailing et al. [12,13] found good agreement between observations
and predictions after truncating at load ranges levels of 9.82%, 11.72%
and 13.98% for AA 2324-T39 and AA 7050-T7451 middle-crack ten-
sion specimens (Fig. 6), which corresponds to an elimination of 26.56%,
46.87% and 62.95% of cycles. However under spectra with truncation
load range levels of 17.11% and 21.36% the measured crack growth
lives significantly exceeded predictions based on the Willenborg model.
These differences were attributed to crack meandering and branching
which notably slows the lead crack growth rate, with Bao and Zhang
[12] noting that this branching appears when small cycles are elimi-
nated to a higher degree.
Wallbrink and Krieg [15] implemented a small cycle omission and
scaling procedure along with a low damage omission method. Predicting
that a 90% spectrum reduction through truncation would require at least
a 58% damage forfeiture, however through damage restoration using the
appropriate model this loss was mitigated, enabling test acceleration by
a factor of 10. Highlighting that the implementation of pure truncation
is restricted, but through the introduction of damage models this limit
can be circumvented.
R. Healey, J. Wang, W.K. Chiu et al.
Fig. 6. Crack morphologies under different loading spectra (S1,S2,S3,S4,S5) following varied levels of truncation; (a) S0 – 0%, (b) S1 – 26.56%, (c) S2 – 46.87%,
(d) S3 - 62.95%, (e) S4 - 73.35%, (f) S5 - 78.58% [13].
After performing rainflow counting and implementing the method
described in Section 2.1.2, Xiong and Shenoi [9] proceeded to shorten
a load sequence. The experimental results confirmed that removal of
carrier cycles indeed had a negligible effect on the fatigue damage. Due
to the significant amounts of secondary cycles in load histories, it was
desirable to merge adjacent and sequential secondary cycles into a new
cycle.
The process of cycle merging implemented by Walbrink and Krieg as
well as Xiong et al. will be discussed in Section 2.3.
2.2.2. Truncation with indexing
Preliminary results were reported from a coupon testing program
conducted by Vine et al. [10] to verify two novel truncation methods for
application to helicopter airframes such as the Black Hawk. The Indexed
Rainflow Filter (IRF) method takes into account the mean and range of
each cycle unlike conventional truncation, enabling for improved dif-
ferentiation between cycles based on fatigue damage.
The following steps are involved in IRF:
(1) Perform Rainflow cycle counting on the stress spectrum and store
the indexes of each data point to enable the original order of the
sequence to be preserved. This subsequently retains any sequence
effects present after the truncation process.
(2) Calculate the number of repeats required to cause failure for each
half cycle (Nf,i , where f refers to failure and i is an index unique to
each half cycle within the sequence).
(3) Delete all half cycles which have a higher number of cycles to failure
than a user defined cut-off, i.e. Nf,i > Ncut − off . This cut-off value
can be set high to differentiate between half cycles which contribute
minute amounts of damage, hence the number of omitted half cycles
can be manually adjusted as desired by simply raising or lowering
Ncut − off .
(4) Restore the remaining turning points to their original positions
within the spectrum relative to each other using the previously cre-
ated indexes.
(5) Remove duplicate turning points. This step accounts for the fact that
each turning points (except the first and last) occur in two separate
half cycles, hence inserting each half cycle will result in duplication
of individual half cycles.
As with traditional truncation there is a theoretical limit to the num-
ber of removable turning points before significant amounts of damage
are omitted. As Ncut − off is decreased more drastically the level of trun-
cation will reach a point where the predicted fatigue damage begins to
drop quickly. As the IRF method is based on the linear damage accumu-
lation model, the Palmgren-Miner Rule, damage calculations do not ac-
count for sequence effects/interactions even though the truncation pro-
cedure does retain said effects through the implementation of indexes.
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Composites Part C: Open Access 5 (2021) 100131
Vine et al. stressed that care should be taken when selecting Ncut − off , as
well as the need for an in depth fatigue analysis which could account
for sequence effects and result in a more gradual drop in damage pre-
dictions likely being attributed to manoeuvre and vibration loadings.
Three levels of truncation were presented with sequences represent-
ing 0.13%, 2.94% and 13.17% of the un-truncated spectrum size, dis-
playing agreement with the predictions for AA 7075-T7351 in crack
growth, but not for crack initiation.
Note that though only the work reported by Vine et al. [9] is re-
viewed in this section, the index method has also been used by many
other researchers. The use of indexing is not exclusive to truncation
procedures and has seen application when cycle merging is being per-
formed, which is discussed in Section 2.3.
2.2.3. Frequency based truncation
The second technique presented by Vine et al. [10] was frequency
based truncation which removed frequency components through quan-
tifying the contribution (fatigue damage) of each frequency component
within a sequence. Components were ranked dependant on their the-
oretical fatigue damage contribution, and then subsequently truncated
based on how many components the user desired to retain. This trun-
cation is accomplished by filtering out frequency components starting
with the lowest ranked and progressing towards the highest, with the
procedure halting once the required level of reduction is reached.
Vine et al. did note that experimental verification is still required
to determine the level of truncation by reducing the number of turn-
ing points in a spectrum whilst still producing an acceptable damage
approximation. To the author’s knowledge at present no publications
have experimentally verified the frequency based truncation technique
presented by Vine et al.
However other work utilising a frequency domain approach has
been published. Through the use of wavelet transforms, S transforms
and short time Fourier transforms (STFT) fatigue load data has been
summarised and the load signals have been significantly compressed
while maintaining the original damage [36–38]. Using a power density
based fatigue load spectrum editing (PD-LSD) approach (based on S-N
curve and a measured load spectrum) acceleration of durability tests
was achieved by Wen et al. [39] through the deletion of load signals
with low accumulated power density, while utilising STFT to quantify
the coupling effect of the loading frequency and loading amplitude.
2.3. Merging
Also known as cycle substitution, cycle merging uses the crack
growth analysis performed on an original sequence to construct a new
shorter sequence with equivalent damage. A fatigue spectrum is split
R. Healey, J. Wang, W.K. Chiu et al.
Fig. 7. Schematic representation of the cycle merging spectrum compression algorithm. Groups of cycles are replaced by single cycles with equivalent damage [14,
15].
into peak-valley pairs and then a crack growth model is implemented to
switch a segment of peak-valley pairs with a single pair which results in
the same crack growth (Fig. 7).
At each segment (j), the uncompressed opening stress segment (𝑠𝑜∗𝑗 )
is replaced by the compressed segment mean (𝜇so,j ) which is determined
from Eq. (5). The crack growth increment segment (𝑎̇ ∗𝑗 ) is summated (𝐴̇ 𝑗 )
based on Eq. (6). The crack growth rate associated with each valley-peak
pair can be determined from some function f of the effective change in
the stress intensity factor ΔKeff (Eq. (7)).
{ } 𝑚 termined from (A,D) and (B,C) thereby replacing them. However if the
1 ∑ ∗
𝑠𝑜∗𝑗 = 𝑠𝑜∗𝑗1 , 𝑠𝑜∗𝑗2 , … , 𝑠𝑜∗𝑗𝑚 → 𝑠𝑜 = 𝜇𝑠𝑜,𝑗 (5)
𝑚 𝑙=1 𝑗𝑙
{ } ∑𝑚
𝑎̇ ∗𝑗 = 𝑎̇ ∗𝑗1 , 𝑎̇ ∗𝑗2 , … , 𝑎̇ ∗𝑗𝑚 → 𝑎̇ ∗𝑗𝑙 = 𝐴̇ 𝑗 (6)
𝑙=1
( )
𝑎̇ = 𝑓 Δ𝐾𝑒𝑓 𝑓 (7)
As the crack growth increment for segment j is known (𝐴̇ 𝑗 ), an equivalent
Δ𝐾𝑒𝑓∗
𝑓 ,𝑗
can be determined with the inverse function, F−1 (Eq. (8)).
( )
−1 ̇
𝑓 ,𝑗 = 𝐹 𝐴𝑗
∗
Δ𝐾𝑒𝑓 (8)
With the indexed rainflow counting, the above merging process could be
conducted after cycle truncation is performed, resulting in a compressed
spectrum in which the cycle sequence is maintained.
Wallbrink and Krieg calculate the effective change in the stress in-
tensity factor from a form of Irwin’s equation for the stress field around
the crack tip [40]. Depending on whether the minimum stress of a seg-
ment was greater than or less than the compressed segment mean (𝜇so,j ),
the amplitude of the valley-peak load pair would be determine differ-
ently, hence defining the valley-peak pair which replaces the segment
(𝑠∗𝑚𝑖𝑛 , 𝑠∗𝑚𝑎𝑥 ). The crack closure algorithm FASTRAN was implemented
to estimate the crack opening stress at each successive applied load
within the spectrum, enabling the determination of the crack growth
rate. The incorporation of FASTRAN ensured that sequence effects were
accounted for when performing compression through utilising a strip
yield model [14].
Cycle merging therefore requires crack growth data to utilise the se-
lected crack growth model. Unlike the previously mentioned techniques,
an understanding of the materials fatigue mechanisms is essential to suc-
cessful implementation as equivalent damage demands accuracy across
a range of loading parameters.
This method was put forth by Wallbrink [14,15] who tested the al-
gorithm with a load spectrum using edge crack 7075-T7351 aluminium
specimens with and without a stop drill (Fig. 8), to expedite an experi-
mental research program to assess a new hybrid repair technology [41].
Finding a high correlation between the original sequence and the com-
pressed version.
The transport aircraft spectrum was reduced in length by 91%, ac-
celerating the fatigue test by a factor of 10 while demonstrating similar
crack growth. Crack growth rates were noted to be slightly quicker in
6
Composites Part C: Open Access 5 (2021) 100131
the nucleation phase of growth, which was ascribed to the larger load
cycles, known for accelerating a single cracks nucleation.
When generating load spectra for accelerated testing, Xiong and
Shenoi [9] performed cycle merging following the deletion of small am-
plitude carrier cycles (see Section 2.2.1). Using the points A, B, C and
D shown in Fig. 3 (left plot), the merging process was implemented as
follows. Extraction of two secondary cycles (A,D) and (B,C) from the
sequence A-B-C-D through rainflow counting was required. By utilising
equivalent damage formulation a new secondary cycle (A,D’) can be de-
newly merged cycle is a main cycle then the merging process is to be
halted, making sequence information necessary in order to maintain the
interaction effects from the original sequence [9]. Equivalent damage
calculations were performed using a variant of Paris’s law which ac-
counts for the effect of the stress ratio, the Walker equation. Xiong et al.
verified this technique using three specimen types: LY12 aluminium al-
loy, 40CrNiMoA and 30CrMnSiNi2A alloyed steels in fatigue tests of an
original load history and accelerated versions. The tests with the LY12
aluminium alloy specimen saw a reduction of ~75% (reduced from 259
mins to 65.6 mins) to the fatigue spectra with adequate close agree-
ment between the accelerated test programme and the original. Similar
agreement was observed with the 40CrNiMoA and 30CrMnSiNi2A al-
loyed steels, with a ~87% and ~60% reduction in test time achieved
respectively.
2.4. Clipping
The action of clipping doesn’t remove any cycles from a load se-
quence but instead reduces the magnitude of any cycle higher than the
clipping level.
In metals, the high amplitude loads are typically clipped to obtain
conservative results in full scale testing as they can result in crack clo-
sure due to the creation of a plastic zone which can delay crack growth
and thereby slow crack growth rates [42]. The choice of clipping peak
loads is one made to avoid the beneficial influence of crack retardation,
i.e. non-conservative fatigue life predictions. Hence the metals yield
strength is required to ensure sufficient clipping occurs, meaning the
effects of processes which lead to strengthening such as work hardening
must also be considered.
Test results have found clipping levels to have a greater influence on
gust-induced fatigue rather than maneuver-induced fatigue [43]. Flights
in severe weather are frequent in occurrence and the associated peak
loads are known to notably influence the fatigue crack growth behaviour
of aircraft components by inducing crack growth retardation [44]. How-
ever it is also possible for these overloads to cause monotonic crack ex-
tension, hence the choice of the peak loading clipping level must be
carefully considered from the coupon level up to full-scale testing [43].
As a result the clipping level chosen is controversial as depending on
the specimen being tested the overall influence of the clipping level may
vary. In the case of thin-gauge damage tolerant materials careful con-
R. Healey, J. Wang, W.K. Chiu et al.
Fig. 8. Test coupons for Hybrid Repair Durability Test. (a) edge crack specimen, (b) stop drill specimen, (c) optimal stop drill specimen, (d) optimal stop drill
specimen with composite patch [15].
sideration should be taken. Conversely for thicknesses exceeding 5 mm
for materials with higher crack growth rates (and yield strength) this
is much less (or not at all) of a concern [43]. This difference is mainly
attributed to the fact that higher growth rates imply that retardation af-
ter a severe flight will be significantly less, while between flights crack
growth is likely to progress well beyond the plastic zone associated with
the preceding severe flight [43]. To reduce the effects of crack retar-
dation stress levels, two of many guidelines were proposed by R.J.H.
Wanhill:
• For long-life crack growth testing, peak loads expected to occur
fewer than 10 times in the target life should be clipped.
• Tests conducted in the in-service inspectable crack growth regime
the peak loads should be clipped to approximately 10 occurrences
per estimated inspection interval.
Schijve suggested that load cycles that occur less than ten times
through-out one thousand flights (or over an aircraft’s lifetime) should
be clipped as these high loads may not be experienced by all aircrafts
due to the low occurrence [45].
Kujawski and Stoychev conducted an investigation into the effects
peak load clipping on fatigue crack growth by modifying a spectrum
taken from a P-3 maritime aircraft in several ways including reducing
the magnitude of the highest peak loads (95%, 85% and 65% peak loads
clipped) [16]. Without clipping, the fatigue life of the positive spectrum
was found to be six times that of the same spectrum clipped at 65% of the
peak load. While negative loads less than 50% of the peak load reduced
the amount of crack growth retardation such that the specimens failed
three times faster, indicating that compressive loading was as important
as overloading.
2.5. Simplification for multiaxial loading
While in service most mechanical structures experience multiaxial
loading, due to aspects such as the multiaxial stress state and the chang-
ing direction of the crack propagation path, multiaxial fatigue analy-
sis is more complex than that of uniaxial fatigue cases. When consider-
ing spectrum simplification techniques, both fatigue prediction methods
and cycle counting techniques are generally required. Over the last few
decades many multiaxial fatigue criteria [46] and life estimation models
[47] have been presented, though fatigue life estimation under multiax-
ial random loading still remains a complicated task. Through the use of
suitable fatigue failure criterion three-dimensional stress states can be
reduced to equivalent uniaxial states [48], these equivalent stress his-
tories can be analysed just as uniaxial loading histories: through cycle
counting and fatigue damage calculations. Niesłony [48] presented a
method for determining multiaxial load segments from service histories
which strongly influence the material fatigue and preserve the original
character of the service loading which utilised equivalent stress states.
Imanian et al. [49] proposed a spectrum editing methodology based on
projection by projection (PbP) and wavelet analysis (WTA) procedure.
7
Composites Part C: Open Access 5 (2021) 100131
Cycles which contributed negligible damage in every decoupled pro-
jected loading path (using PbP) were extracted using WTA procedure.
These extracted segments were then replaced with a cycle contribut-
ing the same amount of damage, this is analogous to cycle merging.
Both fatigue damage retention and the preservation of statistical param-
eters (fidelity) were examined by Imanian et al., with an average reduc-
tion of 75% with a retention of 90% for the original damage values
being achieved. The sequence generation method presented by Xiong
and Shenoi [9] (discussed in Sections 2.1.2, 2.2.1, and 2.3) utilised a
combination of truncation and cycle merging and was applied to a mul-
tiaxial load history for a helicopter tail under transverse and vertical
fatigue loading (15 Hz, room temperature, atmospheric conditions), to
generate new load histories for accelerated tests.
Due to the complexity of modelling fatigue damage under multiax-
ial loading using random variable amplitude sequences, little literature
examines the application of spectrum reduction techniques under said
loading. The aim of this paper is to highlight the need to investigate
the application of simplification techniques for the uniaxial cases for
composite materials, due to the success of such techniques for metallic
materials with multiaxial loading being a subsequent step which adds
further complexity. In this paper spectrum simplification will refer to
the reducing the length of a fatigue spectrum.
Multiaxial testing conditions pose a significant challenge and there-
fore being able to utilise failure criteria to simplify multiaxial loading
to fewer axis is desirable. The case for composite materials isn’t so sim-
ple due to their anisotropy (see Section 5), however there are several
options for performing multiaxial loading. The angle between the 0-deg
fibre direction and the loading direction can be adjusted which enables
biaxial loading states to be tested [50], test fixtures can be designed to
load specimens in multiple direction using uniaxial test machines [51],
and depending on the load histories particular axis can be ignored due
to the dominance of others [51].
2.6. Summary
When performing fatigue spectrum reduction, being able to account
for all load levels in a sequence is of great importance as damage con-
servation is a priority. Rainflow counting is a widely accepted method
for processing random load histories with the original algorithm, the
Pagoda method seeing many adjustments. A notable limitation of the
method was its inability to count half/full cycles in real-time, as the en-
tirety of the load history was required to perform the algorithm. This
drawback was addressed by both the three and four point methods
which enabled the results of cycling count to be observed as the al-
gorithm was being utilised, consequently reducing data requirements
for computer software. The output of these algorithms is a simplified
set of equivalent stress reversals which enables reduction techniques to
be applied. These algorithms all neglect a means for reconstructing the
original sequence in order, which is of importance if sequence effects
are to be considered.
R. Healey, J. Wang, W.K. Chiu et al.
The relatively simple cycle omission technique which is truncation
allows for load levels below selected values to be removed with minimal
analysis of fatigue mechanisms. Selection criteria can vary, including the
load range, proportion of the endurance limit and maximum load. By
utilising criteria which only examine the loads levels, the length of a se-
quence can be significantly shortened without requiring comprehensive
experimental data. However, truncation is restricted in its ability to con-
servatively reduce a load history as not all cycles within the sequence
will induce insignificant amounts of damage. Meaning a limit will be
reached following truncations where only cycles which are considered
damaging remain. Cycle merging overcomes this limitation through the
incorporation of equivalent damage predictions using a knowledge of
relevant fatigue mechanisms. Through calculating the damage contri-
bution of a cycle, groups of cycles can be replaced with individual cy-
cles, hence shortening the original sequence drastically. Therefore by
increasing the complexity and experimental requirements, further test
time reductions become possible.
3. Spectra simplification for composite materials
Whilst available literature indicated the overall strategy and frame-
work used for compressing fatigue spectra for metallic structures may
be applicable to composite structure, there are significant differences
in the detailed techniques. Composite materials do not exhibit a crack
retardation character and thus clipping the overloads is not required.
Merging and truncation methods maybe applicable to composite struc-
tures; however, due to the complicated fatigue damage mechanisms and
failure modes resulting from the anisotropic and heterogeneous charac-
teristics of composite materials, the implementation criteria and verifi-
cation requirements could be considerably different [52].
3.1. Truncation
Despite the added complexities of composite laminates, the rela-
tive simplicity of truncation and the minimal requirement of material
knowledge for implementation has led to successful sequence reduc-
tions. Though as is the case with all fatigue spectrum reduction tech-
niques when considering composites, there has been very little research
when compared to metallic materials.
Clark and Van Blaricum [21] accelerated a FALSTAFF sequence by
reducing the number of turning points from 35, 766 to 9456 through
truncation by load level range (8–17 as shown in Fig. 9) when fatiguing
56-ply specimens manufactured from XAS/914C carbon/epoxy prepreg
under high compressive stresses. Some of the coupons were randomly
selected to be impacted by a falling mass with a hemispherical steel
nose, to produce impact damage with a diameter of 20 mm, 30 mm or
40 mm at the centre of the specimen. A constant level of impact energy
8
Composites Part C: Open Access 5 (2021) 100131
Fig. 9. (a) Full FALSTAFF load sequence, the
zero stress is marked (b) Modified load se-
quence after truncation [21].
Fig. 10. Peak load distribution in flight spectrum [17].
was utilised (12.20±0.09 J) producing a minor back-face cracking in
the form of splitting parallel to the fibres in the surface ply, and non-
destructive inspections found delamination damage to be close to the
window size in all cases. They chose the load level range as the selection
criteria as it enabled the retention of all large compressive and tensile
loads, while also removing a large proportion of low compressive loads.
The FALSTAFF sequence as displayed in Fig. 9 is comprised of load levels
ranging from 0 to 32, where the zero load condition is indicated by a
horizontal line corresponding to level 7.53, and the load level above or
below 7.53 is the compression load and tensile load respectively.
This was found to be an acceptable modification for accelerating fa-
tigue testing as damage growth was seen to be insensitive to the removal
of the low load cycles.
Using a baseline spectrum from a vertical tail of a SAAB JAS39
Gripen, Schӧn and Nyman [17] performed low load cycle elimination to
different degrees, based on the ratio to the maximum load range of the
spectrum. The specimens were made of HTA7/6376 carbon fibre/epoxy
materials with a double lap configuration and six bolts. Elimination lev-
els of 30% and 50% of the maximum range were found to be acceptable
(with sequences named BFKB30 and BFKB50 respectively), enabling 80–
90% of load states to be omitted (see Fig. 10). The fatigue life was noted
to be significantly influenced by the removal of cycles with load ranges
close to the maximum load range of the spectrum, especially for R = −1
cases.
Specimens tested under the original spectrum were found to have
slightly higher fatigue lives, though the difference was well within the
R. Healey, J. Wang, W.K. Chiu et al.
scatter range, meaning that a 50% omission had a negligible effect on
durability. Further work by Schӧn [18] detailed the testing of devised
load sequences derived from a flight spectrum, the omitted small am-
plitude loads in said sequences had load ranges of 50%, 30% and 25%
of the maximum range. For fatigue spectrums of bolted composite lap
joints it was determined that low-amplitude load cycles with a range
less than 30% could be eliminated as they don’t reduce the fatigue life.
While slight reductions to the fatigue life were noted for load cycles with
a range of 50% of the maximum, leading to the suggestion that if there
are few low amplitude load cycles for each large amplitude load cycle
all cycles with a range less than 50% (the maximum) may be removable.
While developing a rule for fatigue damage accumulation of longi-
tudinal elements of a composite wing (specifically polymer composite
materials (PCMs)) experiencing quasi-random loading, V. Strizhius trun-
cated the TWIST program to different degrees [19]. Load levels from
0.22 to 1.6 times the average stress were omitted, with different com-
binations of levels being removed forming five truncated iterations of
the basic spectrum, which were tested on open hole carbon fibre rein-
forced plastic (CFRP) specimens. The fatigue life estimates and experi-
mental findings at the different truncation levels confirmed that PCMs
are more sensitive to the truncation of higher loads than lower ones,
and that truncating lower loads enables considerable test time reduction
with insignificant changes to the test results. Strizhius noted that these
results agreed with the earlier findings of Edward P. Phillips [20] who
performed spectrum truncation while fatiguing notched, graphite/epoxy
(T300/5208) laminates.
3.2. Clipping & load enhancement factors
The behaviour of composite laminates under fatigue loading is no-
tably distinct from that of metallic materials. For metals, considerable
effort has been spent on investigating clipping the overloads which fre-
quently resulted in conservative life estimates for a structure. This is a
result of retardation effects brought on by plastic deformation develop-
ing at the crack tip causing crack closure. Such an effect is not present
for composites, the largest load cycles are considered to in fact be the
most damaging. Inherently this means that the process of clipping is
unnecessary when performing fatigue spectra simplification as clipping
the highest load in a sequence would notably increase the fatigue life of
the specimen being tested [52].
The effects of numerous changes to a fighter attack spectrum on
composite fatigue life were investigated by Badaliance [52] in the early
1980′s. These changes included: Clipping to 90% test limit stress, addi-
tion of 115% and 125% test limit stress overloads (separately), addition
of low loads, truncation to 70% the test limit stress, clipping of tension
loads, increased severity and number of air-air loads. The tested spec-
trum was derived from the stress history from the upper wing skin of
the F-15, which was chosen as composite structures are susceptible to
compression fatigue degradation. Both fibre dominated and matrix dom-
inated layups comprised of AS/3501–6 Gr/Ep were selected for testing
with specimens having a single hole to simulate critical areas of a fighter
wing structure.
Clipping to 90% the test limit stress resulted in an increased fatigue
life, indicating that such a technique was inappropriate for composite
materials. Conversely, the addition of the overloads decreased the fa-
tigue life. Upon truncating the test limit stress to 70% (removing all
loads below 70%), the fatigue life was found to decrease, which was
associated with data discrepancy, the specimen manufacturing and the
testing process variation. Similarly the clipping of tension loads resulted
in an unexpected lower fatigue life (more notably for a matrix domi-
nated layup). Further investigation was noted to be necessary to address
these results.
The most significant effects in fatigue resistance were found in spec-
tra which increased the frequency of high loads. Hence this work indi-
cated that the high magnitude loads contribute substantial damage and
9
Composites Part C: Open Access 5 (2021) 100131
Fig. 11. The three distinct failure modes after static tensile failure. (a) Pull-out
from a baseline sub-laminate case, (b) delamination from a ply-level case, (c)
brittle failure from a second sub-laminate case [55].
as such affect the fatigue life greatly, however due to noted specimen
and data concerns the ability to draw clear conclusions is limited.
In order to achieve B-basis reliability (at least 90% of the population
falls within 95% confidence) more than 13 equivalent lifetimes of fatigu-
ing are required for composite structures, while metals only require 2
equivalent lifetimes [53]. This large difference is due to the high scatter
associated with the fatigue strength of composite structures. To reduce
the duration of these tests the load enhancement factor (LEF) is com-
monly implemented. Unlike clipping, a LEF increases the applied load in
fatigue certification tests to achieve the same level of reliability through
shorter test lengths. Application of LEFs was seen in a DTIC document
by Whitehead et al. [54] which observed the influence of overloads on
composite fatigue life for three different spectra types (horizontal, ver-
tical and wing) from the F-18. This work recalls that Dr Someroff of
NAVAIR had expressed concern that two lifetimes of tests doesn’t ad-
equately access composite parts for potential hotspots. This was due
to the considerably higher fatigue life and scatter that composites dis-
played over metals. Hence he suggested the test spectrum should be
adjusted to lower the fatigue test time of the composites while main-
taining the fatigue test time of the metals, with aircrafts typically being
comprised of both types of material. Whitehead et al. noted that increas-
ing the overloads present in a spectrum indeed reduced the fatigue life
of composite materials, which agree with previously examined studies
[17,18,52]. The effect of overloads was found to be similar for all three
spectra types for composites. Furthermore the influence overloads had
on metallic materials was investigated, with the metal fatigue life resid-
ing within ±20% of the baseline spectrum (without overloads). As such,
overloads were successfully implemented to reduce the fatigue test time
of composites without significantly affecting that of metals (due to crack
retardation effects) [54].
However the specimen/structure type must be considered when us-
ing LEFs as dominant failure modes can be influenced by severity of
loading. Nixon-Pearson and Hallett [55] performed a series of quasi-
static and fatigue tests on open-hole composite laminates observing fail-
ure mechanisms at both the ply and sub-laminate level. The hole diam-
eter, width, thickness and sub-laminate level layup of specimens were
varied to create three configurations for testing which each demon-
strated distinct quasi-static failure modes (Fig. 11).
Damage was observed to propagate outwards from the hole edge in
terms of matrix cracks and delamination, with asymmetric delamina-
tion leading to significant declines in stiffness, representing the domi-
nant failure event for both ply level and sub-laminate level specimens. A
more sudden decrease in stiffness was observed for ply level specimens
R. Healey, J. Wang, W.K. Chiu et al. Composites Part C: Open Access 5 (2021) 100131

with failure events concentrated around the hole. While failure events Table 1
in sub-laminate level specimens were characterised by damage initially Comparison of load-enhancement factor for
occurring in the outer sub-laminates then progressing to the central sub- Whitehead [59] and NIAR [61]; MSSP - Static
Strength Modal Shape Parameter; MLSP - Fa-
laminates, distributing matrix cracking was also observed to a notable
tigue Life Modal Shape Parameter [58].
degree and therefore leading to a more progressive damage sequence.
Under both quasi-static and fatigue loading the ply-level specimens NAVY NIAR
demonstrated delamination dominated failure modes. Quasi-static base- MSSP 20.000 32.193
line sub-laminate tests demonstrated a failure mode of fibre dominated MLSP 1.250 1.880
pull-out. While under fatigue loading delamination was the dominant
N Load-Enhancement Factor (B-Basis)
failure mode for all but the most severe of tests. Specimens tested at
85% of the nominal failure load either failed by fibre pull-out or de- 1.0 1.177 1.102
1.5 1.148 1.076
lamination indicating there may be a threshold between the two failure
2.0 1.127 1.058
modes. Therefore while LEFs can assist in performing hastier and repre- 2.5 1.111 1.044
sentative tests, it should be ensured that the same failure modes occur 3.0 1.099 1.033
before and after application of the LEFs. 3.5 1.088 1.024
4.0 1.079 1.016
5.0 1.064 1.003
3.3. Merging 6.0 1.052
8.0 1.034
Requiring an understanding of the damage mechanisms of the ma- 9.0 1.026
terial means that cycle merging is considerably more demanding than 14.0

truncation. As fatigue spectrum compression for composite materials is NF 13.558 5.267

in its infancy such that truncation has been researched only to a mi-
nor degree it is unsurprising that to the authors knowledge merging has
currently seen no application. There are two distinct ways of applying the combined load-life ap-
Discussion of the potential application of cycle merging is in Section proach [58] both are shown in Fig. 13:
6.
(1) Apply the same LEF to the entire spectrum.
4. Spectra simplification for composite-metal hybrids (2) Apply a different LEF to each different block in the spectrum based
on the severity of enhanced loads.
As discussed previously, LEFs can be utilised to reduce the fatigue
Approach (2) is useful for hybrid structures for which metallic com-
test times of composite materials when performing structural certifica-
ponents could fail due to high stress as well as buckling resulting from
tion. However, when considering aircraft structures there is usually a
overloads.
combination of composite and metal components, the effects of LEFs
In Fig. 13, the blue and purple segments represent the original load
on the fatigue life of metals is also important. With the damage growth
blocks, while the red represents the enhanced load blocks with LEF ap-
mechanisms and test load spectra differing between composites and met-
plied. With reference to Table 1, if a block is repeated once (N = 1) for
als, the process of certification for hybrids is challenging, expensive and
B-basis reliability demonstration, the required LEF to be applied is 1.102
time consuming.
[58]. As the high load block with LEF exceeds the clipping level, only
An example of hybrid materials are fibre metal laminates (FMLs)
this block is repeated with a LEF of 1.033. High load blocks generally
such as GLARE (glass fibre/aluminium) used for the Boeing 777 im-
have fewer occurrences than low load blocks, hence repeating high load
pact resistant bulk cargo floor, which have demonstrated improved fa-
blocks with a life factor in place of a load factor has an insignificant im-
tigue and damage properties over fibre reinforced composites [56]. The
pact on the test duration. Hence through the application of both differing
Airbus A-310 also incorporated GLARE but instead comprising large
LEFs and clipping (LEF-Hybrid) undesirable factors such as plasticiza-
parts of the fuselage (Fig. 12). The fibres in the FMLs have bridging
tion (for metals) and removing severe flight loads (for composites) can
effects, meaning that sensitivity to fatigue loading and transfer loads
be avoided.
over cracks, thereby lowering the stress concentration at the crack tip,
To reduce the length of the test spectrum truncation is applied fol-
hence slowing the crack growth rate. Overall this has resulted in FMLs
lowed by the use of either LEF or LEF-Hybrid. The truncation omits
outperforming monolithic aluminium panels in terms of crack growth
segments with stress levels less than a selected endurance limit, which
lives [56].
will be dependent on the materials being tested, layup and loading con-
When implementing LEFs the new spectrum can possess loads which
ditions.
exceed the clipping level of metal structures resulting in plastic zones
When considering spectrum modification the following key points
and crack retardation effects manifesting. To address this problem,
can be taken from the research from Seneviratne and Tomblin [58]:
Seneviratne and Tomblin [58] investigated the application of LEFs to
the certification process for composite-metal hybrid structures. (1) Fatigue damage mechanisms mustn’t be effected by changes to the
For bolted composite structures the FAA and US Navy had created spectrum. This is achieved through preservation of the stress ratio
a certification methodology as part of the F/A-18 certification process of each load cycle.
[54,59,60], with the aim of having the same level of reliability as the (2) LEFs shouldn’t be applied to the mean fatigue loads as it offsets the
metallic structures. The methodology also sought to address the differ- spectrum.
ences in uncertainties, applied loads and scatter in both static strength (3) Reversible load cases (R<0) are crucial due to having notably lower
and fatigue life that is associated with composites [58]. Through the en- fatigue life than tension-tension or compression-compression cases.
hancement of material, process techniques and test methodologies there
has been significant improvements in both static and fatigue data scatter 5. Damage mechanisms
by the National Institute for Aviation Research (NIAR) [61] when com-
pared to the data presented by Whitehead et al. (referred to as NAVY) Cycle merging is based on the knowledge of equivalent fatigue dam-
[59]. From implementation of modal shape parameters NIAR achieved a age caused by a single cycle and a number of cycles it is to replace. This
reduction in the life factor from 13.558 to 5.267, significantly reducing knowledge is associated with the ability to predict fatigue life or fatigue
test length (Table 1). damage growth. With the fatigue behaviour of composites being vastly

10
R. Healey, J. Wang, W.K. Chiu et al.
Fig. 12. Application of GLARE in A-380 fuselage [57].
different to that of metallic materials, the fatigue life modelling from
metals cannot simply be applied directly. Due to the enormous number
of possible material configurations dependant on the fibres, matrices,
manufacturing methods and lamination stacking sequence, and load-
ing conditions, construction of a general method which accounts for all
variations is very difficult [62, 63]. In order to perform cycle merging
an understanding of the complicated damage mechanisms of composite
materials is thus required.
A clear distinction between composites and metals can be observed
through their fatigue behaviour following barely visible impact damage
(BVID), with an example of BVID displayed in Fig. 14. Metals are char-
acterised by the flaw propagating as a fatigue crack resulting in a steady
decline in residual strength until failure occurs. While composites gener-
ally don’t display any crack growth in the damaged area under repeated
loading as high as 80% of the design limit, with loading exceeding the
design limit leading to unstable growth making testing difficult [64].
Fatigue failure in polymer matrix composites is predominantly a ma-
trix dominated event. Fatigue damage commences with micro-cracking
which accumulates leading to a macroscopic crack. This macroscopic
crack then progresses to induce catastrophic failure. Generally fatigue
failure for unidirectional composites can be classified as one of three
categories [66,67]:
(1) Matrix cracking which occurs parallel to the fibre or by debonding
between the fibre and matrix interface.
11
Composites Part C: Open Access 5 (2021) 100131
Fig. 13. Application of combined load-life ap-
proach [58].
(2) On-axis failure which occurs when a tensile fatigue load is applied
in the direction of the fibres.
(3) Delamination due to accumulation of matrix microcracks.
When considering woven composites, fatigue failure is instead di-
vided into five categories [67–69]:
(1) Transverse cracking in the tows during initial loading.
(2) When loaded in a low applied cycle range, microcracks form in ma-
trix pockets leading to the lamina softening.
(3) When loaded in a larger applied cycle range, microcracking begins
in the tows perpendicular to the loading direction loading to further
softening of the lamina.
(4) Delamination between fill and wrap tows leading to a further reduc-
tion in modulus. This occurs simultaneously with (3).
(5) Failure of tows parallel to the loading direction leading to a loss of
stiffness of the lamina.
Laminate composites are known to be vulnerable to the initiation of
cracking followed by propagation along the laminar interface. Delami-
nation is one of the most prevalent modes of crack growth which signifi-
cantly influences the life of structures due to the associated degradation
of the in-plane strength and stiffness. It can also lead to catastrophic
failure. Furthermore it can develop inside a material without obvious
indications on the surface making it difficult for non-destructive inspec-
tion techniques to locate.
R. Healey, J. Wang, W.K. Chiu et al. Composites Part C: Open Access 5 (2021) 100131

Fig. 14. Acoustography image of BVID impact

damage delaminations in AS4/8552 coupons
(a) before fatigue loading (b) after cycling
above fatigue strain limit. The central region
of delamination in (a) is approximately 27 mm
in diameter [65].

Fig. 15. Fatigue initiation and damage growth around a hole

[70].

The presence of unexpected through-thickness stresses in composite There is an abundant amount of literature that investigates the man-
structures is commonly the cause of delamination due to the relatively ners in which crack growth data under mode II loading can be fit to
low values of through-thickness strengths when compared to in-plane variations of Paris’ law using different forms of the√
strain energy release
strengths [71]. For example a feature such as an aircraft rib-to-skin joint rate (SEER) such as; Gmax [74,75], ΔG [76–78], Δ 𝐺 and Geq [79–82].
which may experience out-of-plane loading as a result of fuel pressure To maintain consistency with Paris’ law, the equivalent term to ΔK
loading if located in a wingbox [72]. While no external out-of-plane for composite materials wouldn’t be ΔG, but rather:
loads may be applied, in a built-up structure the manner in which dif-
(Δ𝐾 )2 (√ √ )2
ferent parts are constrained and the manner in which the load is car- Δ𝐺𝑒𝑞 = = 𝐺𝑚𝑎𝑥 − 𝐺𝑚𝑖𝑛 = 𝐺𝑚𝑎𝑥 (1 − 𝑅)2 (9)
𝐸 ′
ried, may result in secondary loading in the through-thickness direc- √
tion, meaning that considerable modelling would be required to obtain Hence Δ 𝐺 can replace ΔK in Paris’ law to produce an analogous
stresses for practical application (Fig.15). model, this form has seen recent use [83–85].
Hence in the following subsections a focus is placed on review Jones et al. [84] proposed a model based on a variant of the
of delamination/matrix cracking and examining literature which con- Hartman-Schijve equation in order to access the ‘retardation free’ upper
structs/utilises crack growth rate modelling, highlighting the potential bound fatigue crack growth curve for polymer matrix fibre composites.
application of such models to spectrum reduction techniques in this im- As previously
√ noted the equivalent form of the strain energy release rate
portant area. to ΔK is Δ 𝐺, hence the model is of the form
𝑛
⎡ √ ⎤
⎢ Δ 𝐺 − Δ√𝐺 ⎥
𝑑𝑎 𝑡ℎ𝑟
= 𝐷⎢ √[ ⎥ (10)
5.1. Crack growth rate modelling of delamination 𝑑𝑁 ⎢ √ √ ]⎥
⎢ 1 − 𝐺𝑚𝑎𝑥 ∕ 𝐴 ⎥
⎣ ⎦
For composite materials, crack growth models tend to take the form √ √
of Paris’ law [73] with the stress intensity factor range (ΔK) replaced Where Δ 𝐺𝑡ℎ𝑟 is the value of Δ 𝐺 at threshold, meaning that below
by some function dependant on the maximum strain energy release rate said value no significant fatigue crack growth occurs. A is a constant
(Gmax ). Predictions of crack propagation are conducted by integrating which is observed to be analogous to the initial critical value of the
these models to obtain the crack growth: a(f(Gmax ),N), thus enabling fracture energy (Gc ). While D and n are both fitting parameters.
the total number of cycles required to grow a crack a certain length to This model not only provides a means for calculating the worst case
be determined. It is also common for f(Gmax ) to actually take the form crack growth but like the Hartman-Schijve equation, enables for exper-
f(Gmax ,R). imental data to be fit such that n is not relatively large. Typically the

12
R. Healey, J. Wang, W.K. Chiu et al. Composites Part C: Open Access 5 (2021) 100131

power term in crack growth models for metals varies from 2–4, while The simplest criteria that are able to assess matrix failure are the
for polymer composites it is generally higher between 10 and 15 [82]. maximum strain criteria (or maximum stress criteria). Failure is consid-
Jones et al. [84] provide a comparison of the fitting parameters when ered to have occurred once a strain (or stress) component exceeds its
modelling using Gmax as well as the argument of the brackets in Eq. (10), respective limit, with three different criteria addressing the fibre, ma-
finding n values of 9–13 under Gmax while achieving values of 2–3 with trix/transversal and shear directions. For an in-plane case, the maximum
the proposed model. Having a low value of n is important for predict- strain criteria have the following form:
ing crack growth as the higher the value of n the more small errors are Fibre
magnified leading to excessively non-conservative predictions.
𝜀1 ≥ 𝜀𝑢1𝑇 or ||𝜀1 || ≥ 𝜀𝑢1𝐶 (11)
Despite the considerable amount of literature concerning fitting
crack growth data, very rarely though are these fitted curves (produced Matrix
by the modelling discussed) utilised for life predictions in literature, nor
is effort directed towards investigating the effect of load history when 𝜀2 ≥ 𝜀𝑢2𝑇 or ||𝜀2 || ≥ 𝜀𝑢2𝐶 (12)
establishing these curves. Anilchandra et al. [82] did proceed to predict Shear
the failure of IMA/M21 carbon fibre composites that were loaded un-
|𝜀 | ≥ 𝜀𝑢 (13)
der a mini FALSTAFF spectrum using a reversible three point bending | 12 | 12
fixture for mode II delamination, finding good agreement between the Where 𝜀𝑢1𝑇 , 𝜀𝑢1𝐶 and 𝜀𝑢2𝑇 , 𝜀𝑢2𝐶 are the ultimate tensile and compressive
experimental fatigue tests and their prediction model. strain values in the principal directions 1 and 2 respectively. Maximum
stress criteria exist much in the same form as the strain criteria directly
5.2. Fibre-matrix interface failure and matrix cracking comparing the stresses in the longitudinal, transverse and shear direc-
tions with a limit. Both cases disregard any interaction between stresses
In the case of quasi-static tension loading in the fibre direction, fol- acting upon the lamina [93].
lowing the first fibre break several different events may subsequently The Hashin failure criteria [94] considers the combined effect of
follow depending on the properties of the fibres, matrix, and interface stress components on failure modes and thus would be more accurate in
[86]. predicting matrix failure. The Hashin failure criteria predicts four dif-
• The crack can propagate from the fibre to the matrix, where growth ferent failure modes: tensile and compressive fibre failure, tensile and
is halted by neighbouring fibres [87,88]. Further fibre breaks may compressive matrix failure, with the conditions being
ensue or the crack may deflect as a debond crack along the interface. Tensile Failure of Fibre (𝜎 1 > 0)
• Shear yielding of matrix can occur at the fibre break tip which can ( )2 ( )
𝜎1 𝜏12 2
blunt the crack [89]. + =1 (14)
𝑋𝑡 𝑆𝑙
• Debonding cracks may propagate from the fibre and break along the
fibre-matrix interface [90]. These cracks may grow until they en- Compressive Failure of Fibre (𝜎 1 < 0)
counter another debonding crack along the same or a neighbouring
𝜎1 = 𝑋 𝑐 (15)
fibre, enabling the formation of one large crack (coalesce) resulting
in failure. Tensile Failure of Matrix (𝜎 2 > 0)
( )2 ( )
Under tension-tension loading fibres are assumed to be non- 𝜎2 𝜏12 2
+ =1 (16)
degrading in mechanical fatigue, while the polymer matrix is known 𝑌𝑡 𝑆𝑙
to have a given fatigue limit above which matrix cracking will occur
Compressive Failure of Matrix (𝜎 2 < 0)
[86]. Matrix cracking may also occur due to manufacturing defects, [( ]
( ) ) ( )
these cracks after reaching the fibre-matrix interface may deviate and 𝜎2 2 𝑌𝑐 2 𝜎 𝜏12 2
propagate as debond cracks. Such debonding was analysed by Pupar + −1 2 + =1 (17)
2𝑆𝑡 2𝑆𝑡 𝑌𝑐 𝑆𝑙
and Varna who found the crack growth driving force to be several or-
ders of magnitude lower than for debonds initiating from fibre breaks where X and Y are the longitudinal and transverse tensile/compressive
[91]. When considering the modelling of cyclic fatigue loading as with strength respectively, 𝜎 1 and 𝜎 2 are principal stresses, 𝜏 12 is a principal
delamination, equations of the form of Paris’ law have been validated shear and Sl and St are the transverse and longitudinal shear strengths
and been utilised for individual debond growth [86]. respectively. A three dimensional failure criterion was also developed
by Hashin [95] which further introduces interlaminar tensile and com-
5.3. Role of static strength failure criteria pression failure modes. The criteria were originally developed for unidi-
rectional lamina, but through approximation has been applied to other
When designing with consideration to fatigue or performing fatigue laminate types [96].
testing, the ratio between the static strength and applied fatigue load is The Tsai-Wu criteria [97] is widely implemented and includes stress
often contemplated (stress ratio). For composites, the static strength is and strength interactions in the fibre and matrix directions. The criterion
often defined as the ultimate load that the structure can sustain prior is as follows
to rupture. A matrix dominated sub-failure (such as transverse crack-
𝐹𝑖 𝜎𝑖 + 𝐹𝑖𝑗 𝜎𝑖 𝜎𝑗 = 1 (18)
ing) could occur at a significantly lower load level (than the ultimate
load), from which fatigue damage growth could initiate. Some matrix where i, j and k = 1, …,6 for the three dimensional case, Fi and Fij are
dominated failure could hardly be observed in a static test, whilst a the material strengths in the principle directions. This is a generalised
well-developed static strength failure criterion could provide a good version of the earlier Tsai-Hill criterion which was applied at the lamina
indication of such failure. Thus a short non-comprehensive review of level [98].
prominent failure criteria is provided below. When regarding the determination of stress ratios both Hashin’s fail-
Some failure criteria that focus only on ultimate static strength of ure criteria and the maximum principal stress/strain criteria are more
laminates would be unsuitable for matrix fatigue failure initiation as- suitable than the Tsai-Wu criteria due to the added complexity incorpo-
sessment. A typical example is the criterion proposed by Yamada and rated by the former in combining individual components which lead to
Sun [92] that assumes all constituent laminae to have already failed the laminate failure.
from cracking in the direction of the fibre, hence transverse stiffness, When predicting the strength of a fibre reinforced polymer compos-
modulus of elasticity and Poisson’s ratios of all laminae were neglected. ite it is common (as seen with the previous two sets of criteria) for the

13
R. Healey, J. Wang, W.K. Chiu et al.
laminae to be regarded as a homogeneous orthotropic material. How-
ever through separating the matrix and fibres stress calculations through
a micromechanical analysis, failure at the level of fibre, matrix and their
interface can be predicted. Gosse and his co-workers [99,100] suggested
that two properties dictated damage in the matrix, the first invariant of
the strain tensor, J1𝜀 , and the second invariant deviator (also referred
to as equivalent strain), 𝜀eqv :
𝐽1𝜀 = 𝜀1 + 𝜀2 + 𝜀3 (19)
{ [( )2 ( )2 ( )2 ]}0.5
𝜀𝑒𝑞𝑣 = 0.5 𝜀1 − 𝜀2 + 𝜀1 − 𝜀3 + 𝜀2 − 𝜀3 (20)
where 𝜀1 ,𝜀2 and 𝜀3 are principal strains. These criteria are known as
Strain Invariant Failure Criteria (SIFT). Eq. (19) and (20) predict ini-
tial matrix failure due to dilatational (change in volume) and distor-
tional (change in shape) deformations respectively. For matrix failure,
[101] adapted Drucker-Prager criteria to replace Eq. (20) (von Mises
criterion), which is more accurate particular for the compression load
case. Chowdhury et al. [102] performed four point bend tests on a car-
bon/epoxy laminate specimen. Two methods were employed to estab-
lish a suitable failure criterion to predict matrix failure. The first com-
pared several commonly used failure criteria at the lamina level, whilst
the second uses micromechanical analysis to predict matrix failure. It
was found that matrix failure was poorly predicted at the lamina level
(by a factor of two), whilst a failure criterion incorporating the 1st stress
invariant and Drucker–Prager failure criterion at the micromechanical
level gave a much better prediction.
By contrast, when considering metal structures the stress at which
yield or fracture occurs a number of theoretical criteria have been de-
vised. Two common criteria are the maximum principal stresses (Rank-
ine) and shear strain energy per unit volume (von Mises) [103]. The
Rankine theory is the simpler of the two, assuming that once the maxi-
mum principal stress reaches the elastic limit stress under tension, fail-
ure will occur:
𝜎1 = 𝜎𝑦𝑡 (21)
Similarly, failure under compression is considered to have occurred if
the principal stress was compressive and had reached the compressive
yield stress before the tensile limit was reached:
𝜎3 = 𝜎𝑦𝑐 (22)
This criteria has displayed agreement for brittle materials, but has
been found to be largely inappropriate for ductile materials [103]. The
von Mises criterion instead determines whether yielding has occurred
through comparing the distortion energy density of a material at a given
stress state to the strain energy density at yield. The criterion is
[ composites, while cycle merging has yet to be realized.
1 ( )2 ( )2 ( )2 ]
𝜎1 − 𝜎2 + 𝜎2 − 𝜎3 + 𝜎3 − 𝜎1 ≤ 𝜎𝑦2 (23)
2 for the effect of load sequence, for which there seems to be no clear
which as previously mentioned is of the form of Eq. (20). Eq. (23) has
seen considerable application and verification, being regarded as the
most reliable basis for design, especially when considering ductile mate-
rials [103]. Hence the isotropic/homogeneous characteristics of metal-
lic materials result in relatively simplistic failure mechanisms/criterion
when compared to the non-isotropic/nonhomogeneous characteristics
of composite materials.
6. Discussion
6.1. Role of static strength failure criteria
Metallic materials and composite materials differ across key aspects
which have relevance to the implementation of spectrum reduction tech-
niques. The isotropic and homogenous nature of metals leads to rel-
atively straightforward failure mechanisms and failure criterion. The
most commonly implemented and reliable criterion for metals being von
14
Composites Part C: Open Access 5 (2021) 100131
Mises, which determines whether yielding has occurred based on three
principal stresses and a yield stress limit.
When considering composites this simplicity is lost due to their non-
isotropic, non-homogenous characteristics which vary to great degrees
depending on the layup. Fatigue damage of a composite is initiated by
matrix failure which will proceed to propagate after continual loading,
leading eventually to catastrophic failure. However depending on which
components of the composite fail and how the damage grows, the appro-
priate failure model can change. Even the simplest of failure criterion
for composites, the maximum strain (or stress) criteria consider the fibre
and matrix dominated failure separately. Additional complexity is incor-
porated when considering the combined effect of stress components in
failure modes (Hashin criterion), which more accurately reflects matrix
failure.
When considering the influence of static strength/ failure mecha-
nisms on composite fatigue two areas are of concern: (1) its relation to
fatigue damage initiation; and (2) its relations to fatigue damage prop-
agation. In terms of initiation, composite failure strength assessment
would consider tensile, compressive and shear stresses (or strains) in
the principal directions (individually or in combination) of lamina, be-
tween plies (through thickness delamination) and along bond lines. The
failure predicted can be in fibre dominant or matrix dominant forms,
with “first ply failure”, particularly “matrix dominated first ply fail-
ure”, the laminate is often not considered as having failed in terms of
static strength, whilst fatigue damage could initiate at these regions and
grow. When utilizing the stress ratio in fatigue related design and test-
ing, all failure forms should be considered (particularly for high cycle,
dynamic loading applications such as delamination in helicopter main
rotor blades). Thus the static failure criteria would be of importance. As
for (2), firstly the discussion regarding (1) may have relevance as the
“driving stress” which initiates the damage may also contribute in driv-
ing damage growth. Secondly, currently when the strain energy release
rate is calculated, laminates are considered as a homogeneous material,
through the application of SIFT (or an extension) this could be calcu-
lated differently and more accurately.
6.2. Further research directions
Despite the significant differences between composites and metals,
techniques which have been utilised for spectrum reduction with metal-
lic materials still have applicability to composites. With the process of
cycle clipping being the only method inappropriate for implementation
in composites, instead LEFs are applied in an analogous manner to ad-
dress the overly long equivalent lifetime requirement associated with
B-basis reliability. Truncation along with Rainflow counting (and in-
dexed versions) has seen successful (though limited) implementation in
Cycle merging adds further complexity by requiring consideration
consensus with relation to composites. Research has found some spec-
imens sensitive to load sequence [104–106] and some not [107,108],
even when restricting the scope to carbon fibre composites. The analyt-
ical modelling of failure mechanisms in composites displays high levels
of specificity, with many models being limited to specific fibre types,
orientation and loading configurations making general formulae with
high accuracy impractical. However based on the experimental verifica-
tion performed by Wallbrink [14,15] and the degree of test acceleration
achieved, an investigation into the applicability of relatively general
damage models for composites with cycle merging could yield conser-
vative reductions exceeding truncation. There is an abundant amount
of work [75–86] which focuses on modelling these mechanisms which
can be utilised for equivalent damage predictions.
As fatigue spectrum compression for composite materials is in its
infancy stage, there are plenty of research opportunities. The research
work should start with fatigue testing with individual basic failure
modes of composite structures to gain the fatigue life prediction capabil-
R. Healey, J. Wang, W.K. Chiu et al.
ity (damage equivalency knowledge) in the basic/fundamental form and
then move towards more complicated fatigue tests where multi-failure
mechanisms are present. Fatigue growth types such as delamination and
adhesive disbond would need to be concentrated on initially as these
are the most common fatigue damage forms seen on aircraft structures
[64] and they also form important parts of more complicated structural
fatigue failure modes.
The framework for performing spectrum reduction in metals can
largely be expected to be applicable to composites due to the gener-
ality of the counting and reduction methods. Furthermore, despite the
scarcity of literature truncation has seen success in composites with the
use of the load range [17,18,21] and the average stress [19] as removal
criteria. With load levels as high as 50% of the maximum load range
being omitted with negligible effects on the sequences damage content
[17,18], literature generally agrees that low level loads can be safely
removed. However, it was observed [106,109] a rather low level load
could propagate delamination cracks, highlighting the necessity to in-
vestigate fatigue behaviour of composites under their various damage
modes. When considering cycle merging the foundations for performing
said technique already exist. Many damage models have been developed
which provide a means for performing the damage calculations required
for cycle merging but have yet to be applied in such a manner for com-
posites.
7. Recommendations
Based on the literature review and previous discussion the following
areas are recommended for future research:
• Investigate the application of spectrum reductions techniques on var-
ious composites specimen types and loading conditions.
• Develop and assess prediction models for various composite damage
failure modes for implementing spectrum reduction techniques.
• Investigate the basic failure modes of composite structures to enable
predictions of the fatigue life. Then extend investigations to more
complicated tests with multi-failure mechanisms Fatigue growth
types such as delamination and adhesive disbond should form the
focus of initial investigations as these are most common fatigue dam-
age forms seen on aircraft structures [64] and they also form impor-
tant parts of more complicated structure fatigue failure modes.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The Authors declare that there is no conflict of interest.
Funding
This research was partially funded by Capability Acquisition and Sus-
tainment Group, Australian Department of Defence.
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