Progressive Damage Analysis of Laminated Composite Plate Subjected to Bending Fatigue

In this paper, a laminated composite plate, which was subjected to bending fatigue load, was modeled based on the strength degradation theory of the composites. Also, effects of the fiber directions in the layers and layer stacking on the fatigue life of the plate were studied. First, the governing equation of the laminate plate in bending was obtained by the Navier theory. Then, by solving the governing equation, the deflection and stresses in the plies of each layer were obtained. Finally, using the Brotman-Sahu strength degradation theory, reduction of strength and stiffness in each layer of the plate in each loading step was determined. The data which were obtained in each step were used to specify the data and material properties of the next solution step. This process was repeated until a fatigue failure in the fiber or matrix began in one or more layer(s). Using the sudden death theory and iteration of the solution process, the final fatigue life of symmetric laminates with various stacking and fiber direction was investigated. In the numerical results, the carbon/epoxy composite laminate with different layer stacking was studied.