Fatigue life prediction of laminated polymer matrix composites

The subject of the present study was the development of a critical element based engineering methodology for the fatigue life prediction of laminated multidirectional polymer matrix composites subjected to general states of plane stress under random load-time histories. The considered baseline problem was pure cyclic torsion fatigue on ±45° angle-ply composites. A consistent experimental programme was carried out to characterize the damage and failure behaviour of the laminate, to validate the simulation results and to provide the necessary experimental input on the unidirectional level. The paper presents details of the fatigue life prediction methodology, relevant experimental results and comparisons between experiment and prediction.