An interlaminar fatigue damage model based on property degradation of carbon fiber-reinforced polymer composites

Interface delamination is a significant damage mechanism in fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) laminated composites caused by interlaminar normal and shear stresses. This is due to the low interlaminar properties including interface stiffness and strength that continuously degrade to cause fatigue crack nucleation and growth. In this respect, an interlaminar fatigue damage model is proposed to accurately address the reliability aspect of the FRP composite materials and structures. The model considers a damage process that consists of two stages: (1) fatigue damage evolution due to interlaminar properties degradation to the onset of crack nucleation. A cyclic cohesive zone model with a bilinear softening behavior is introduced along with the fatigue life model to capture the mean stress effect of the interface. This is followed by (2) the crack nucleation process leading to the physical separation/debonding of the interface material point, as governed by the cycle-dependent fracture energy dissipation. The mechanical prediction of the interlaminar fatigue damage process is illustrated through finite element simulation of a mixed-mode flexural test of a carbon fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) composite beam subjected to fatigue loading. The results indicate that the interlaminar normal and shear crack opening displacement increases exponentially with the larger number of load cycles. In addition, the high-stress gradient is limited to the interface crack front zone with the normal and shear stress peaks at 69.2 and 16.5 % of the respective interlaminar strength. Moreover, controlled interlaminar crack growth is initially foreseen at 7.0 × 10-6 mm/cycle, followed by an abrupt crack “jump” at 287,000 load cycles.

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