Estimation method of fatigue life distribution for woven composites based on numerical analysis of damage development

Estimation method of fatigue life for textile composites was proposed. Because textile composites have a many design parameters such as fiber type, resin type, architecture of reinforced fibers, volume fraction of fiber and fiber orientation, etc., it is difficult to obtain enough fatigue test data for all combinations by experimental procedures. In the proposed method, textile composites were treated as heterogeneous bodies with anisotropy for fiber bundles and isotropy for matrix, respectively. The stress distribution under cyclic loading was evaluated by FEM. On the other hand, each element of FE model was considered as unidirectional materials and their properties under cyclic loading are estimated from fatigue test. The proposed method was applied to plain woven CFRP. It was confirmed that the proposed method is applicable to estimation of fatigue life of textile composites. © 2014 The Society of Materials Science, Japan.