Experimental and theoretical predictions of first-ply failure strength of laminated composite plates

Experimental and theoretical methods are presented to study the first-ply f ailure strength of laminated composite plates under different loading condi tions. An acoustic emission technique is used to measure the energy release d in the plates during the failure process. The first-ply failure strength of the plates is then identified via the energy vs load diagrams which are constructed on the basis of the measured acoustic emissions. A finite eleme nt analysis, which is constructed on the basis of the layerwise linear disp lacement theory, and the Tsai-Wu failure criterion are used to predict the first-ply failure strength of the plates. The comparison between the experi mental and theoretical results shows good agreement. (C) 1999 Elsevier Scie nce Ltd. All rights reserved.