Experimental, Analytical, and Numerical Investigation of Damage Mechanics of the Cross-ply Composite Laminate with Matrix Crack

Once a composite laminate is subjected to quasi-static tensile or fatigue loading, some damage modes initiate and propagate in the laminate. The first damage mode is the matrix crack that forms in the layers with an angle to the loading direction. Although not leading to breakage, these cracks reduce the equivalent mechanical properties of the composite laminate. In this paper, a new nonlinear analytical model is presented and used to predict the stiffness degradation of the cross-ply composite laminates. For this purpose, a new third-order polynomial function is proposed as the Helmholtz free energy of the composite, and the appropriate equations are derived. A microscopic experimental test is designed and accompanied by the analytical model to investigate the damage progression in a glass/epoxy cross-ply laminate. Also, finite-element micromechanical models with periodic boundary conditions (PBC) are proposed and used to determine the damage constants. The model is validated against the 3D micromechanical models and the quasi-static uniaxial loading-unloading experimental tests. The validation shows a very good agreement between the model and the experiments.