A Model of the Fatigue Life Distribution of Composite Laminates Based on Their Static Strength Distribution

The reasons of the static strength dispersion and the fatigue life dispersion of composite laminates are analyzed in this article. It is concluded that the inner original defects, which derived from the manufacturing process of composite laminates, are the common and major reason of causing the random distributions of the static strength and the fatigue life. And there is a correlative relation between the two distributions. With the study of statistical relationship between the fatigue loading and the fatigue life in the uniform confidence level and the same survival rate S-N curves of material, the relationship between the static strength distribution and the fatigue life distribution through a material S-N curve model has been obtained. And then the model which is used to describe the distributions of fatigue life of composites, based on their distributions of static strength, is set up. This model reasonably reflects the effects of the inner original defects on the static strength dispersion and on the fatigue life dispersion of composite laminates. The experimental data of three kinds of composite laminates are employed to verify this model, and the results show that this model can predict the random distributions of fatigue life for composites under any fatigue loads fairly well.