Interlaminar damage behavior of CFRP composite laminates under cyclic shear loading conditions

This paper provides quantitative description of interlaminar damage process in CFRP composite laminates under cyclic shear loading. Quasi-static end-notched flexural (ENF) test on 16-ply CFRP composite laminate beam, [0]16 and its complementary validated FE model provide the reference “no-interlaminar damage” condition. Two identical ENF samples were fatigue to 50000 cycles, but at different load amplitude of 90 and 180 N, respectively (Load ratio, R = 0.1) to induce selectively property degradation at the interface crack front region. Subsequent quasi-static ENF tests establish the characteristic of the interlaminar damage degradation. The residual peak load for the fatigued ENF samples is measured at 1048 and 914 N for the load amplitude of 90 and 180 N, respectively. Cyclic interlaminar shear damage is represented by a linear degradation of the residual critical energy release rate, GIIC with the accumulated damage. Reasonably close comparisons of the predicted residual load-displacement responses with measured curves serve to verify the suitability of the assumed bilinear traction-separation law for the cyclic cohesive zone model (CCZM) use