Composites: Part B 65 (2014) 11–16

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Composites: Part B
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/compositesb

Fatigue of laminated composite structures with stress concentrations

Ch. Hochard ⇑, St. Miot, Y. Thollon
LMA, Aix-Marseille Univ, CNRS 7051, Centrale Marseille, F-13402 Marseille Cedex20, France

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: A model defined at the ply scale to predict the failure of laminated composites for static and fatigue load-
Received 29 July 2013 ings has been proposed. The model describes the loss of strength in the fibre direction for high levels of
Received in revised form 14 September 2013 transverse damage. This phenomenon can be observed in a 0° tube by applying a cyclic torsion loading up
Accepted 21 October 2013
to a high level of damage followed by a tensile test. The model includes an original approach based on a
Available online 5 November 2013
Fracture Characteristic Volume (FCV) to predict the fibre failure of laminated structures with stress con-
centrations. The FCV is a cylinder defined at the ply scale where the average stress is calculated and com-
Keywords:
pared to the maximal strength of the material. The fibre failure model and an application to open hole
A. Laminates
B. Fatigue
plates loaded in fatigue are presented in this paper.
B. Stress concentrations Ó 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
C. Damage mechanics

1. Introduction is calculated over the volume. The geometrical parameters of the

The failure of laminated composite structures involves many
mechanisms acting at various scales. The models based on damage
mechanics can describe the progressive damage of the material
which consists of the propagation of matrix cracks parallel to the
fibre direction [1–4]. Even if the size of these cracks corresponds
to the thickness of the ply, they usually do not lead to the final fail-
ure of the laminate. On the other hand, the fibre failure is cata-
strophic for the laminate.
A model defined at the ply scale to describe the fibre failure
for static and fatigue loadings has been proposed [5,6]. The model
describes the loss of strength in the fibre direction for high levels
of transverse damage. This phenomenon can be observed in a 0°
tube by applying a cyclic torsion loading up to a high level of
damage followed by a tensile test. The fatigue loading leads an
important material degradation. The residual strength is close
the strength of the material when performing tensile tests at tem-
peratures above the Tg or tensile tests on dry fibre. The simple
model presented in this paper describes the progressive evolution
of the transverse damage, for static and fatigue loadings and the
sudden drop in strength for very high levels of transverse
damage.
In addition, an original approach based on a Fracture Character-
istic Volume (FCV) has been developed to predict the fibre failure
of laminated structures with stress concentrations for static load-
ing [7–9]. The FCV is a cylinder defined at the ply scale. Mean stress
⇑ Corresponding author. Tel.: +33 491113875; fax: +33 491113838.
E-mail address: hochard@lma.cnrs-mrs.fr (Ch. Hochard).
FCV are identified from a tensile test on a specimen with a stress
concentration, such as an open hole plate. The model and the non-
local failure criterion were implemented in Abaqus. The model has
been validated for static loading on many materials, especially bal-
anced and unbalanced woven plies. In the case of fatigue, the
highly damaged material can be consider as a new material (com-
pared to the healthy material) and can require a new identification
of the FCV [6].
The extension of the model for fatigue loading, based on a loss
of strength in the fibre direction for high levels of transverse dam-
age, and the application to open hole plates loaded in fatigue are
presented here.
2. Damage model at the unidirectional ply scale
2.1. Assumptions
A model based on the Continuum Damage Mechanics (CDM)
has been developed to describe the damage evolution in compos-
ite material at the ply scale [1–4]. The damage is assumed to be
uniform in the thickness of the ply. Modelling both static and fa-
tigue loadings with the same model is allowed by the use of a
non-linear cumulative law which describes the damage evolution
according to the maximal load and the amplitude of the cyclic
loading.
In the fibre direction, the UD ply shows a linear elastic behav-
iour when applying a tensile loading until the final brittle failure.
In the transverse and shear directions, the response is non-linear
because of the damage which leads to a loss of stiffness. The dam-
age kinematics was described by three internal damage variables:

1359-8368/$ - see front matter Ó 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.compositesb.2013.10.020
12 Ch. Hochard et al. / Composites: Part B 65 (2014) 11–16

– d1, Whose evolution represents the linear elastic behav- In the case of fatigue loading, the damage evolution depends on
iour and the brittle failure of the fibres observed when the maximal load Y df and the amplitude of the loading DY df during
i i
applying a tensile load in the longitudinal direction. a cycle. The damage evolution law is then written as:
– d2, Which models the loss of transverse stiffness observed f     b2  b3  b4 
when applying transverse and shear loadings. @d2 c b1
¼ ð1  d2 Þ af Y df DY d f þ bf Y df DY df  Y f0
– d12, which describes the loss of shear stiffness due to @N 2 2 12 12
þ
transverse and shear loadings. ð8Þ
f
where Y f0 is the threshold value of the development of d2 .
The progressive development of damage d2 and d12 depends on
the tensile load as well as on the shear load, which generates the  2  2
hrmax
2 iþ  hr2 iþ
min
rmax
12  r12
min
matrix cracks. In the assumption of plane stress and small pertur- DY d f ¼ and DY df ¼  2 ð9Þ
f 2
bation, the strain energy in the ply can be written as follow [1]:
2
2 E02 ð1  d2 Þ 12 f
2 G012 1  d12
" #
1 hr1 i2þ hr1 i2 hr2 i2þ hr2 i2 m0 r2
Eps
D ¼ 0
þ 0þ 0 þ 0   2 12
0
r1 r2 þ 0 12
2 E1 ð1  d1 Þ E1 E2 ð1  d2 Þ E2 E1 G12 ð1  d12 Þ 2.3. Inelastic strain in the shear direction
ð1Þ
After loading has been applied to a (+45, 45)ns laminate,
where <.>+ is the positive part and <.> is the negative part. The ten- inelastic strains are observed. These strains may result from the
sile energy and the compressive energy are separated in order to slipping/friction process occurring between fibre and matrix as
describe the unilateral nature of the damage process due to the the result of the damage. Although inelastic strain can also be ob-
opening and closing of the cracks. The thermodynamic forces asso- served during tensile test on 0° and 90° laminates, only the inelas-
ciated with the internal tensile and shear variables d1, d2 and d12 are tic strain in the shear direction is relevant. A kinematic hardening
defined as follow: model was used to describe the inelastic shear strain evolution.
8 ps
The coupling between the damage and the plasticity is ac-
> @E hri i2þ
< Y di ¼ @dDi ¼ 2E0 ð1d with i ¼ 1; 2 counted for by the effective stress and the effective strain [1],
Þ2 i
ps
i
ð2Þ which are written as:
> @ED 2
: Yd ¼
12 @d12
¼ 2G0ðrð1d
12 Þ
2 r12
12 12 Þ
r~ 12 ¼ and ~ep12 ¼ ep12 ð1  d12 Þ ð10Þ
ð1  d12 Þ
The development of internal variables depends on these ther-
modynamic forces. Under tensile loading conditions, d1 suddenly It is assumed that stresses r1 and r2 do not influence the elastic
develops to model the brittle behaviour in the fibre direction. So, field domain defined by:
d1 is defined as:  
~ 12  X ~ep12 j  R0
f ¼ jr ð11Þ
(
d1 ¼ 0 if Y d1 < Y max
1 where R0 is the initial inelastic strain threshold and X is the harden-
ð3Þ
d1 ¼ 1 if Y d1 P Y max
1 ing parameter.

where Y max
1 is the parameter defining the ultimate force in the fibre 3. Fibre tensile failure criterion
direction.
3.1. Damage influence on the fibre failure
2.2. Damage evolution laws
During the fatigue loading, crack density increases in the trans-
The cumulative damage evolution law is defined as follow. The verse direction and this damage leads to a decrease of the stiffness.
damage variables in the transverse and the shear directions, de- In the longitudinal direction, the damage prevents the load transfer
noted respectively d2 and d12, are calculated as the sum of the between fibres. Fibre failure can then occur even if the maximal
terms due to static and fatigue loadings [2–4]. stress usually measured in the case of homogeneous tension test
is not reached. This phenomenon was not observed in the case of
s f
d2 ¼ d2 þ d2 ð4Þ static loading due to the low crack density compared to the case
of fatigue loading where the damage can reach a very high level.
As proposed in [1], the shear damage d12 is taken proportional
Experimental tests were performed to study this phenomenon
to the transverse damage d2. This choice is based on the fact that
which can lead to premature failure of laminate. Specifics tubes
the cracks are parallel to the fibres and their effect on the trans-
were manufactured with Glass/Epoxy unbalanced woven ply. The
verse and shear modulus is the same.
tube shape was studied so that the strain field was homogeneous
d12 ¼ c d2 ð5Þ in the central area (Fig. 1). The lay-up in the central area was
(0)3. A torsion cyclic loading was applied to the tubes and gener-
In the case of static loading, the tension/shear coupling during ates matrix damage. The rotation was limited to avoid loading
s
the development of d2 is accounted for by the following equivalent the fibres. The shear stress/shear strain curve for the torsion fati-
thermodynamic force: gue is plotted in Fig. 2 (left). The shear strain is measured with a
Y eq ¼ aðY ds2 Þn þ bðY ds12 Þm ð6Þ torsional extensometer. The loss of stiffness, which characterizes
the evolution of the damage, can be observed on Fig. 2 (left). The
where a, b, m and n are material parameters specifying the tension/ damage is calculated from the variation of the shear modulus
shear coupling. The evolution law for the damage is written as: (d12 ¼ 1  G12 =G012 ). Various levels of damage were obtained
according to the number of cycles applied. Then, the tubes were
s
d2 ¼ h1  eðY eq Y 0 Þ iþ
s loaded in static tension until the final failure to estimate the resid-
ð7Þ
ual strength of the fibres. Fig. 2 (right) shows the influence of the
where the constant parameter Y s0
corresponds to the threshold va- damage on the failure strength in the fibre direction. Because of
s
lue of the development of d2 (which ranges from 0 to 1). the specimen complexity and the test duration, the results are
 Ch. Hochard et al. / Composites: Part B 65 (2014) 11–16 13

310 mm
Ø 28 mm

Ø 30 mm
Ø 35 mm
3 plis 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11plis

70 mm 70 mm 15 mm

Fig. 1. Geometry of the tube.

6,5
15 1stcycle
6

Failure load (kN)

10 after 300 cycles

after 1100 cycles 5,5

Stress (MPa)

5
after 1600 cycles 5
0
-0,6 -0,4 -0,2 0 0,2 0,4 0,6 4,5
-5
4
-10
3,5
-15 0 0,2 0,4 0,6 0,8 1

Strain (mm/mm) Damage

Fig. 2. Stiffness decrease during the cycles (left). Failure load evolution according to the matrix damage (right).

limited but it appears clearly that a high level of damage leads to a

decrease of the strength in the fibre direction. max
The Fig. 3 confirms that the loss of strength is mainly due to ma- Yd
1
trix damage. The Load/Displacement curves were plotted for safe
and damaged tubes. Any fibre damage would affect the stiffness
of the specimen. The scatter of the stiffness values is probably
due to the tube manufacturing process.
The tests showed the strong influence of the matrix damage on
the fibre failure. Because of the matrix cracking and the matrix/fi-
bre debonding, the load transfer between the fibres is modified.
The ply failure occurred although the stress in the fibre direction
was lower than the ultimate tensile strength.
For a fibre failure model, the matrix damage is evaluated and its 0 1
influence on the fibre strength can be taken into account with the
d2
following simple criterion:
Fig. 4. Y max
d1 evolution law according to the damage d2.
Y d1 6 Y max
d1 ðd2 Þ ð12Þ

where the thermodynamic force Y d1 is proportional to the longitu- 3.2. Application of the model on unbalanced woven plies laminates
dinal stress (Refer to Eq. (3)) and d2 is the transverse damage in the
UD ply. Y max
d1 evolves sharply between two values according to a The model was applied to Glass/Epoxy unbalanced woven ply.
threshold value of d2 as it was shown in Fig. 4. In the case of static The woven ply was modelled by two UD plies with different thick-
loading, the level of damage does not usually reach the threshold nesses to take into account the different proportions of fibres in the
and the criterion (12) is equivalent to a maximum stress criterion. warp and the weft directions (Fig. 5). The parameters of the elastic
But in the case of fatigue loading with a high number of cycles, and damage laws of both UD plies were evaluated from the
the level of the damage cannot be neglected. mechanical response of unbalanced woven ply laminates. In the
case of fatigue loading especially, the influence of the ply thickness
on the damage evolution cannot be neglected. So, the damage
7000
properties for the thin and the thick ply need to be defined sepa-
6000 rately. The identification of the material properties required by
d=0.65
5000 the model is detailed in [5].
Load (kN)

d=0.75 d=0.85
4000 Dumbbell shaped specimens [10], [11] were used for the fatigue
tests in order to avoid premature failure in the tabs (Fig. 6). The
3000
experimental fatigue loading tests on 0° and 90° laminates are
2000 shown in Fig. 7. The S–N curves are similar and the influence of
Safe tube
1000 Damaged tube the amplitude of the load and the R ratio (R = rmin/rmax) is small.
0 The experimental and simulated results were compared after iden-
0 0,5 1 1,5 2 2,5 3 3,5 tifying the coefficients of the law (8) in the case of the 0° and 90°
laminates. These results showed relatively good agreement regard-
Displacement (mm)
ing the current state of development of the parameters identifica-
Fig. 3. Tension tests on safe and damaged tubes. tion process (the b2 coefficient (Eq. (8)) is taken to be equal to 0,
14 Ch. Hochard et al. / Composites: Part B 65 (2014) 11–16

Same strain

% fibres in the % UD at 0°
warp direction (100- ) % fibres in
the weft direction (100- ) % UD
at 90°

Fig. 5. Assumption for woven plies.

R=1m

30 mm

300 mm

Fig. 6. Dumbell shaped specimen for tension fatigue test.

which leads to cancelling the influence of the load amplitude in the

transverse direction of the UD plies).
The results of the experimental fatigue tests on (+45°, 45°) are
shown in Fig. 8. The influence of the R ratio is more important with
this laminate, where the level of shear stress is a significant factor.
As previously observed in the case of balanced carbon/epoxy wo-
ven plies [4], the influence of the R ratio is the predominant factor
in shear loading case. The experimental and simulated data were
compared after identifying the coefficients of the law (8) in the Fig. 8. S–N curve for (+45°, 45°) unbalanced woven ply laminates in tension.
case of the (+45°, 45°) laminates (Fig. 8). A good agreement be-
tween the test and the simulation can be observed. The influence
of the R ratio was correctly taken into account. has been developed to account for the influence of stress concen-
For tests on (90) and (+45°, 45°), two fatigue tests per load lev- trations [7–9]. The FCV is a cylinder defined at the ply scale as
els were generally made. These tests are very time consuming and the volume V = hS, where h is equal to the thickness of the ply
the number of tests is insufficient to exploit the results for a statis- and S is the in-plane area (see Fig. 9).
tical point of view. The results proposed in this paper are rather The non-local fracture criterion was defined in the case of static
qualitative. loading as:
1 R 2
hr1 iþ dV
4. Structures with stress concentration Y d1 ¼ V V
and Y d1 < Y max
d1 ð13Þ
2 E01

4.1. Fracture Characteristic Volume
The previous studies led to observe a strong underestimation of
the failure strength when a local criterion was used to predict the
failure of laminated structure [6] with stress concentration. An ori-
ginal approach based on a Fracture Characteristic Volume (FCV)
where Y d1 is the mean thermodynamic force associated to the dam-
age variable in the longitudinal direction d1 and Y max
d1 is a material
property which needs to be identified.
The extension to fatigue loading led to modify the criterion and
take into account the influence of matrix damage on the tensile fi-
bre failure [6]. The criteria (13) can now be written as:

Fig. 7. S–N curves for 0° (left) and 90° (right) unbalanced woven ply laminates in tension.
 Ch. Hochard et al. / Composites: Part B 65 (2014) 11–16 15

d h = ply thickness
d = 13 mm
w = 45 mm

FCV

l = 200 mm

Fig. 9. Non-local failure criterion based on a Fracture Characteristic Volume (FCV). Fig. 11. Geometry of the open hole plate.

4.2. Plates with notches in static

45,0 The use of the non-local criterion was applied to structures with
40,0
high stress gradients, such as plates with circular notches. The ulti-
mate strength was measured experimentally for several laminates:
35,0
(0)8, (90)8, (QI), (±18)4S and (15)8. The dimensions of the plates
Force at failure

30,0 were 300 mm long and 45 mm width. The notches were circular
25,0 with a radius of 3 mm.
20,0 The results of the approach presented here (see Fig. 10), in
15,0 which non-linear behaviour is associated to the non-local failure
criterion (CDM model/FCV), matched the experimental data (Exp)
10,0
quite well. The failure occurs when the failure criterion is reached
5,0
in an FCV.
0,0 The FCV can be used with an elastic linear model. With a lin-
[0°] 8 [90°] 8 (QI) [+18°,-18°] 4s [15°] 8 ear behaviour, the computation time and the number of param-
Exp CDM Model/FCV Elastic/FCV eters to be identified are highly reduced. Fig. 8 gives results
obtained with this method (Elastic/FCV). In the case of (QI)
Fig. 10. Comparison of experimental and numerical predictions for different and (±18)4s laminates, this method gives good results. In the
laminates and plates with notches (failure load in kN). case of (0)8 and (90)8 laminates, the results are less accurate be-
cause the damage cannot be neglected. Around a geometrical
singularity, the level of damage is very high, which influences
8  2 the stress distribution. In the last case studied, the (15)8 lami-
>
> R nate showed a very non-linear behaviour. So, the elastic law
>
<
1
Vf Vf
hr1 iþ dV
did not work.
Y d1 ¼ 2 E1 0 and Y d1 < Y max
d1 ðd2 Þ ð14Þ
>
>
: d ¼ 1 R d dV
>
2 V Vf 2 f
4.3. Open hole plate in fatigue
In the case of fatigue, if the level of damage is high, the de-
graded material can be seen as a different material compared to Open hole (+18, 18)2S plates were manufactured with Glass/
the healthy material and can require a new identification of the Epoxy unbalanced woven ply. The geometry of the plate is
FCV (Vf). presented in Fig. 11. A cyclic loading was applied on the plates.

S-N curve
1

Matrix
damage
fields
σ fatigue
0
σ static

Fig. 12. Comparison of experimental and numerical S–N curves for (+18, 18)2S open hole plates.
16 Ch. Hochard et al. / Composites: Part B 65 (2014) 11–16
The ratio between the minimal stress and the maximal stress was
equal to 0.1. Different values of the maximal stress were studied.
The model was applied to the open hole plates. The failure of
the laminated structures was defined by the criterion (14) with
the same FCV as for static load (Vf = V). A first ply failure approach
was applied. The experimental data and the numerical simulations
are compared in Fig. 12. The size of the damage zone increases
with the number of cycles. The model matches quite well the
experimental tests, which means that both damage and stress con-
centration have to be taken into account to predict the failure of
laminated structures in the case of tensile fatigue loading.
Few fatigue tests were performed on specimens with stress
concentrations. For this laminate and material, it was not neces-
sary to change the size of FCV in fatigue but it is probably not
the case for all materials (first results with carbon fibre).
5. Conclusion
A fibre failure model for static and fatigue loads, based on a
description of the loss of strength in the fibre direction for high lev-
els of transverse damage, was presented. The simple criterion
based on a Fracture Characteristic Volume previously developed
to predict the failure of laminated structure under static loading
was extended to the case of fatigue loading. Experimental tests
on open hole plate were performed. The results obtained with
the model matched the first experimental data fairly well.
The relation between the damage, the stress concentration and
the tensile fibre failure needs to be studied with more accuracy, in
particular the influence of the damage on the size of the FCV.
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