Computational fatigue life prediction of continuously fibre reinforced multiaxial composites

The potential of a fatigue-life prediction method for continuously fibre reinforced carbon/epoxy laminates has been investigated. Stress analysis conducted with a finite element solver in combination with the experimentally measured anisotropic S–N curves was used as input parameters. Subsequently, lifetime of a unidirectional and a multidirectional composite was calculated for a cyclic tension–tension load case and validated with experimental fatigue tests. The predicted lifetime of the unidirectional laminate correlated well to the experimental results. For the fatigue-life calculation of multidirectional composites, the software underestimated the experimental data. Results and possible improvements based on the presented calculations are discussed in detail.