Fatigue delamination growth (FDG) is an important failure in composite structures during their long-term operations. Hygrothermal aging can have significant effects on interlaminar resistance. It is therefore really necessary to explore FDG behavior in composite laminates with hygrothermal aging. Dynamic mechanical thermal analysis (DMTA), mode I FDG experiments and fractographic examinations were conducted to fully investigate hygrothermal aging effects and the corresponding mechanisms on FDG behavior. The DMTA results indicated that environmental aging can induce obvious T_g decrease. Mode I experimental fatigue data interpreted via different Paris-type correlations demonstrated that: Bridging has obvious retardation effects on FDG behavior via the Paris interpretations; The modified Paris relation can well characterize the intrinsic FDG behavior around the crack front; The use of the two-parameter Paris-type relation can appropriately account for R-ratio effects, contributing to a master resistance curve in determining mode I FDG behavior. According to these interpretations, it can be concluded that hygrothermal aging can have adverse effects on mode I FDG behavior. SEM examinations demonstrated that moisture absorption can cause fibre/matrix debonding and resin matrix pores/voids in the composite. However, no obvious difference in damage mechanisms was identified in mode I fatigue delamination for composite with/without environmental conditioning. Both fibre/matrix debonding and matrix brittle fracture were identified on fatigue fracture surfaces. Accordingly, it was concluded that fibre/matrix interface and matrix degradation induced by water absorption were the main reasons for a faster mode I fatigue crack growth in environmental aged composite.

Methods based on fracture mechanics have been widely used in fatigue delamination growth (FDG) characterization of composite laminates. These methods are based on the similitude hypothesis. It is therefore important to have appropriate parameters to well represent the similitude, which is useful for fatigue delamination test standard development aimed by Technical Committee 4 of the European Structural Integrity Society (ESIS TC4) and the ISO/TC61/SC13. In the present study, discussions on similitude parameters for fibre-bridged fatigue delamination interpretation have been conducted via fatigue data with fibre bridging at different R-ratios. The results clearly demonstrate that the strain energy release rate (SERR) indeed applied around the crack front, rather than the total applied SERR, should be employed to represent the similitude for FDG interpretation with large-scale fibre bridging. Particularly, the use of Δ√G_tip can well determine fibre-bridged delamination behavior of a given R-ratio, but it is not valid for FDG at different R-ratios in accordance with the similitude principles. A new similitude parameter, in terms of both Δ√G_tip and the maximum SERR G_{max_tip}, was therefore proposed to appropriately represent FDG behavior with fibre bridging at different R-ratios. This study can not only provide database, but also give important insights for the development of mode I fatigue delamination test standard of composite laminates.

Carbon-fibre reinforced composites are susceptible to delamination. Fibre bridging is an important shielding mechanism frequently observed in delamination. The presence of these bridging fibres can significantly increase interlaminar resistance, making it critical to represent this phenomenon for delamination characterization in composite laminates. To this end, in-situ SEM examinations were carried out to thoroughly explore damage mechanisms around delamination front as well as in bridging fibres. It was found that micro-cracks initiated at fibre–matrix interface can gradually develop and coalesce into micro-delaminations ahead of the main crack. The accumulation of these micro-delaminations can finally cause macro delamination propagation. The performance of bridging fibres can be summarized as three typical stages, i.e. bending, fibre–matrix peeling and final breakage with crack opening. Subsequently, theoretical discussions on bridging stress distribution were conducted in accordance with these bridging mechanism examinations, contributing to a new traction-separation constitutive to represent fibre bridging performance. A FEA prediction model was finally developed to characterize delamination behavior with fibre bridging. The simulation results can agree well with the experimental data in the entire delamination, demonstrating its effectiveness in fibre-bridged delamination representation. This study also demonstrated the importance of having in-depth understanding on fibre bridging mechanisms to appropriately represent bridging performance during delamination growth in composite laminates.

In this paper, the effect of interface properties on the compressive failure behavior of 3D woven composites (3DWC) is investigated by incorporating a micromechanics-based multiscale damage model (MMDM). The correlation between the mesoscopic stress of yarns and microscopic stress of constituents is established by defining a stress amplification factor. With the microscopic stresses, the fiber breakage and matrix failure can be separately evaluated at the microscale, without assuming the yarns as transversely isotropic homogeneous materials. Especially, the interfacial debonding between yarns and matrix is also a dominant damage mode within 3DWC. Given that there is still a lack of studies on the influence of interfacial properties on the compressive failure behavior of 3DWC, it is meaningful to perform numerical parametric studies to reveal how the interface properties contribute to the damage mechanisms of 3DWC under compressions. The predicted results indicate that with the increase of interface strengths and fracture toughness, the compressive resistance of 3DWC can be significantly improved, resulting in higher strength and failure strain. Additionally, the studied 3DWCs with weak, medium and strong interfaces exhibit different damage development processes.

This study provides an investigation on mode I fatigue delamination growth (FDG) with fibre bridging at different R-ratios and temperatures in carbon-fibre reinforced polymer composites. FDG experiments were first conducted at different temperatures of R-ratios 0.1 and 0.5 via unidirectional double cantilever beam (DCB) specimens. A fatigue model, employing both the strain energy release rate (SERR) range and the maximum SERR around crack front as similitude parameter, was proposed to interpret FDG behavior. The use of this model can collapse FDG data with fibre bridging at different R-ratios into one master curve, obeying well with the similitude principles. Accordingly, it was found that FDG can accelerate with elevated temperature, but decrease at sub-zero temperature. Furthermore, there are strong correlations between the fatigue model parameters and temperature using this model in FDG interpretations. Taking these correlations into account can extend the model to accurately predict FDG behavior of other temperatures. Fractographic examinations demonstrated that temperature has effects on the FDG damage mechanisms. Both fibre/matrix interfacial debonding and matrix brittle failure were observed in FDG of −40℃. Fibre/matrix interfacial debonding becomes the dominant failure in FDG of RT and 80℃. No obvious difference on the fracture morphology was identified for FDG at different R-ratios of a given temperature.

In this paper, a reliable progressive fatigue damage model (PFDM) for predicting the fatigue life of composite laminates is proposed by combining the normalized fatigue life model, nonlinear residual degradation models and fatigue-improved Puck criterion. To balance the accuracy of life predictions and computational efficiency, an adaptive cyclic jump algorithm is developed and implemented within the PFDM. The sensitivity of life prediction to cyclic jump parameter has been greatly reduced by correlating the cyclic jump with the increment time and viscous coefficient. Therefore, the cyclic jump parameter can be arbitrarily selected within a relatively large range to obtain convergent results. When incorporating the adaptive cyclic jump algorithm, there is no need to define a standard for determining the material failure in numerical calculations, which effectively eliminates an artificially induced uncertainty in life predictions. Two sets of experiments are conducted to validate the proposed PFDM. The numerical predictions including static failure strength and fatigue life correlate reasonably well with the available experimental data.

A novel micromechanics-based multiscale progressive damage model, employing minimal material parameters, is proposed in this paper to simulate the compressive failure behaviours of 3D woven composites (3DWC). The highly realistic constructions of microscopic and mesoscopic representative volume cells are accomplished, and a set of strain amplification factor is employed to bridge the meso-scale and micro-scale numerical calculations. Considering that the multiple failure mechanisms of 3DWC under compression are all caused by the matrix failure from the microscopic perspective, a new method incorporating the micromechanics of failure (MMF) theory and 3D kinking model is developed to identify the micro matrix failure associated with the kinking of yarns, inter-fiber fracture and pure matrix failure. As a result, only the matrix parameters are required for the failure simulation of 3DWC, eliminating the necessity of using other material parameters such as the fracture toughness and failure strengths of fiber yarns, which are generally difficult to accurately obtain through experiments. The newly proposed damage model is numerically integrated into ABAQUS with a user-defined subroutine UMAT. The numerical predictions and the experimental results exhibit good agreement, verifying the feasibility and accuracy of the novel damage model.

Fatigue delamination in multidirectional composite laminates was experimentally investigated in present study. Both the Paris relation and a modified Paris relation (with a new similitude parameter) were employed to interpret fatigue delamination with significant fibre bridging. The results clearly demonstrated that fatigue delamination was independent of fibre bridging, if a reasonable similitude parameter was used in data reduction. As a result, a master resistance curve can be fitted to determine fatigue crack growth with different amounts of fibre bridging. The energy principles were subsequently used to provide physical interpretation on fatigue delamination. The results indicated the energy release for the same fatigue crack growth remained constant with fibre bridging. Bridging fibres in most cases just periodically stored and released strain energy under fatigue loading, but had little contribution to real energy release. The master resistance curve was finally applied to predict fatigue delamination with fibre bridging. Acceptable agreement between predictions and experiments was achieved, demonstrating the validation of the modified Paris relation in fibre-bridged fatigue delamination study.

The influence of fibre bridging on delamination failure in multidirectional composite laminates with different thickness scales is characterized, and the dependence of fibre bridging significance on laminate thickness as well as loading regime is investigated in this paper. Both quasi-static and fatigue resistance curves (R-curve) are experimentally determined to quantify the significance of fibre bridging in delamination growth. The results clearly demonstrate that thickness has effect on the amount of fibre bridging in quasi-static delamination. And the significance of fibre bridging decreases with the increase in laminate thickness. However, the situation for fatigue delamination growth (FDG) is much more complicated. The difference in fibre bridging generation seems to be insignificant in short fatigue cracks and at the plateau state, whereas more bridging fibres can be present in a thinner laminate in-between state. Loading regimes also have significant effect on the amount of fibre bridging. The results clearly demonstrate that more bridging fibres can be generated in quasi-static delamination compared to fatigue. A modified Paris relation proposed by the authors in previous studies is employed in present study to determine fibre-bridged FDG behaviors in multidirectional composite laminates with various thickness scales. All fatigue data locate in a relatively narrow band region of the resistance graph, resulting in a master resistance curve in determining fatigue delamination behaviors. This clearly demonstrates that neither thickness nor fibre bridging has significant effect on fatigue delamination behaviors, if the similarity is well represented.

This paper provides an investigation on thickness effects on fibre-bridged fatigue delamination growth (FDG) in composite laminates. A modified Paris relation was employed to interpret experimental fatigue data. The results clearly demonstrated that both thickness and fibre bridging had negligible effects on FDG behaviors. Both energy principles and fractography analysis were subsequently performed to explore the physical reasons of this independence. It was found that the amount of energy release of a given crack growth was not only independent of fibre bridging, but also thickness. Fibre print was the dominant microscopic feature located on fracture surfaces, physically making the same energy dissipation during FDG. Furthermore, the present study provides extra evidence on the importance of using an appropriate similitude parameter in FDG studies. Particularly, the strain energy release rate (SERR) range applied around crack front was demonstrated as an appropriate similitude parameter for fibre-bridged FDG study.

Fatigue delamination with fibre bridging in composite laminates with different thicknesses was investigated. The experimental results clearly demonstrated fibre bridging had significant retardation effects on fatigue delamination behavior, making it insufficient to use a single Paris resistance curve to determine fatigue crack growth. To address this problem, the coefficients of the Paris relation were correlated to the normalized crack extension (a − a₀)/L_pz. It was found that the exponent n was independent on the normalized crack extension and specimen thickness, whereas the parameter log(c) bi-linearly decreased with the normalized crack extension and kept constant once fibre bridging became saturation. And the magnitude of log(c) was independent on specimen thickness. Thus, it was concluded that fatigue delamination behavior and fibre bridging significance were independent on specimen thickness at a given normalized crack extension (a − a₀)/L_pz. With substitutions of these correlations into the Paris relation, an empirical power law relation was developed to characterize fatigue delamination behavior. And its validation was verified by a comparison between predictions and experiments.

The aim of present research is to determine fatigue delamination with fibre bridging in composite laminates. Both the Paris relation and the Hartman-Schijve equation were employed to explore fatigue delamination behavior. The use of the Paris relation can result in fatigue delamination growth being crack scale dependent. This dependence was significantly reduced in case of using the Hartman-Schijve relation in data reduction. This difference can lead to controversies on fatigue delamination behavior in composite laminates. To address this dispute, a new parameter, which was consistent with the hypothesis of similitude as well as damage mechanisms, was introduced to represent the similitude in fatigue delamination growth. A modified Paris relation based on this parameter was proposed and used to determine fatigue delamination. And a master resistance curve was obtained to determine fatigue delamination growth with different amounts of fibre bridging. Thus, fatigue delamination is crack scale independent, if the similitude is well characterized. And in the Paris region, the modified Paris relation can provide good predictions in fatigue delamination growth with fibre bridging.