Explaining the multiple energy thresholds for damage mechanisms activation in laminate composites under cyclic loadings

After half a century of developing fatigue delamination prediction models, where accuracy seems more important than physical understanding, this research aims to merge both aspects. To that aim, strain energy release (SER) within the fatigue load cycle was studied using acoustic emission. The correlation between the measured strain energy...

A gradient-enhanced damage approach to fracture

Free edge delamination in carbon-epoxy laminates: A novel numerical/experimental approach

Useful lifetime prediction software for plane semi-cracks in 3-D solid configurations

Computer programs are described to be used for fracture control purposes. Crack growth lifetimes can be predicted for plane cracks in 3-D structures. Values for stress intensity (K-) distributions at crack fronts are derived from data being available from literature for a restricted number of simple configurations. For arbitrary configurations...

The application of fracture mechanics to the growth of creep cracks

The literature concerning the application of fracture mechanics to the growth of creep cracks is discussed. As an introduction it is shown that linear elastic fracture mechanics have been applied successfully to the residual strength of brittle materials crack growth due to stress corrosion and crack growth due to fatigue. Next the methods are...

User's manual of ARREST, a computer routine for prediction of residual strength of cracked stiffened panels

This report gives a detailed description of the computer program ARREST and of the execution of it in determining the residual strength diagram of cracked stiffened panels. The essentials of the computer program are dealt with in chapters 1 through 5, whereas the derivation of the equations together with the program flow charts ajid the program...