Fatigue life prediction of circular notched CFRP laminates

Abstract

Fatigue life prediction and fatigue behavior of circular notched carbon fiber reinforced plastic laminates are presented. Point and average stress criteria proposed by Whitney and Nuismer are generalized to fatigue fracture criteria for notched laminates. Residual strength degradation model and the assumptions on the stress redistribution are introduced during the derivation of prediction equations. S-N curve, Basquin's relation, and Hwang and Han's fatigue life prediction equation (FLPE) 1 are chosen for evaluation of residual strength of unnotched laminates and six prediction equations are derived. Experiments are performed using carbon fiber reinforced plastic laminates. Presented prediction equations are reasonably close to experimental data and proposed approach is found to be suitable to predict fatigue life of notched composite laminates. (C) 1999 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.