Abstract:

A fatigue damage cumulation model, which is based on the cumulative strain during cyclic loading, is proposed for predicting the fatigue life of carbon/ bismaleimide composite laminates. If the major mode of failure is controlled by fiber fracture or transverse cracking, the analytical way of this paper can evaluate excellently the cumulative damage and predict successfully the fatigue life of composite laminates. Theoretical results are verified experimentally by unidirectional or cross ply laminates under the single stress or multi stress level fatigue tests.

Key words: composite laminates, fatigue, damage cumulation