ANALYSIS OF MATRIX DAMAGE EVOLUTION IN LAMINATED COMPOSITE PLATES

A new model has been developed to investigate matrix cracking in lamin ated fibrous composite structures. The model can predict matrix cracki ng and its effect on stiffness reduction. It can also compute the load transfer from the cracked matrix to surrounding fibers. The model is based on the micromechanical concept of the fiber and matrix as well a s the matrix material degradation concept as matrix cracking progresse d. The micromechanical concept uses a rectangular cell geometry repres enting a fiber and its surrounding matrix while the material degradati on concept uses an empirical expression of a Weibull type function. Tw o material constants are required for matrix cracking. The constants w ere obtained from an experiment on matrix cracking. With those constan ts, the present model predicts the matrix cracking in other cases. The predicted solutions were comparable to the experimental data.