Development of transverse cracking in cross-ply laminates during fatigue tests

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the progressive development of transverse cracking in cross-ply laminates subjected to uniaxial fatigue tests. First, a finite-element analysis shows how an analytical model which considers a progressive shear through the thickness of the 0° layers can be used for evaluating the stress field in the case of progressive cracking across the specimen width. The paper then presents a simulation of the progression of the transverse cracking, based on statistical distributions along the specimen length for crack initiation and across the specimen width for crack growth across the specimen width. The simulation process is applied to glass-fibre/epoxy cross-ply laminates and the results obtained are compared with experimental results.