Transverse cracking of cross-ply laminates: Part 2. Progressive widthwise cracking
Résumé
The purpose of the paper is to investigate the progressive transverse cracking across the width of cross-ply laminates, subjected to uniaxial fatigue tests. First a finite element analysis is implemented for a crack partly spanning the width of an elementary cell. The influence of the crack length across the specimen width is studied. Then, it is shown how the results can be used in the case of a random distribution of transverse cracks observed in fatigue tests.