Fatigue behavior of thick composite laminates under flexural loading

The importance of the structural aspect is more evident for the case of thick laminates, subjected to flexural loading while being constrained by bolts. To study the fatigue behavior of such materials (and structures), both the structural aspects and material aspects must be taken into consideration. This is the subject of study of this paper. It examines the behavior of 80-layer thick unidirectional glass/epoxy laminates subjected to flexural loads while being constrained by bolts. Both theoretical and experimental studies are carried to validate each other. The theoretical part consists first of structural analysis which provides the locations of potential failure. This is followed by the application of fatigue failure criteria at these locations. Good agreement is obtained between the experimental and theoretical results.