Abstract: This investigation is conducted to determine the development of tension-compression fatigue damage up to the final damage state in test specimens with a central hole. The graphite/epoxy laminates with a multidirectional stacking sequence are fabricated from T300/914C prepregs. A special computer program for controlling the cyclic loading of the testing machine is used to unload the specimens very quickly during the compression phase of the last cycle prior to failure such that the final damage state which precedes the sudden buckling failure can be obtained. The damage distributions in the laminates are measured successfully by means of radio-graphic and ultrasonic techique. The test results exhibit good reprodu-cibility.This paper describes the stiffness degradation, the stress-strain response before failure, and the damage development during loading. And also po ints out that the fatigue damage of laminates should be treated as a da-mage process cotaining complex interaction of different damage modes rather than an assembly of discret and independent damage modes. From this point of view, the characteristics of damage development and failure mechanism of the laminates are expounded and a empirical expression of the delamination growth is given. They can be used to predict the lifetime of the specimens.