DAMAGE TOLERANCE OF LAMINATED COMPOSITES CONTAINING AN OPEN HOLE AND SUBJECTED TO TENSILE LOADINGS

An investigation was conducted to study tensile failure of laminated composites containing an open hole. This investigation was especially concerned with determining the response, type and extent of damage in composites as a function of applied load. Both an analysis and experiments were performed for graphite/epoxy composites during the study. A progressive damage analysis was developed to study the problem. The analysis was verified by an extensive comparison between the numerical calculations based on the analysis and the experimental data obtained during the investigation as well as from published literature. Different graphite/epoxy composite materials were considered in the study. Overall, good agreements were found between the calculations and the data. Based on the study, it was found that the types and extent of internal damage in the notched composites strongly depend on the ply orientation of the laminates. The types and the size of damage directly affect the strength and failure mode of the composites.