A micromechanics based model for predicting fatigue life of composite laminates

The current practice, as well as the hitherto proposed models, for assessme nt of fatigue life of composite laminates rely largely on experimental fati gue life data. In this paper, we propose a methodology for fatigue life pre diction that utilizes a micromechanics based evaluation of damage evolution in conjunction with a semi-empirical fatigue failure criterion. The specif ic case treated is that of cross ply laminates under cyclic tension. The pr edicted results are compared with experimental data for several glass/epoxy and carbon/epoxy laminates, and good agreement is found. Published by Else vier Science S.A.