The fatigue growth of internal delaminations under compressive loading of cross-ply composite plates

This study focuses on the mode dependence of delamination growth under cyclic compressive loads in cross-ply composite plates. The model proposed makes use of an initial postbuckling solution derived from a perturbation procedure. A mode-dependent crack growth criterion is introduced. Expressions describing the fatigue crack growth are derived in terms of the distribution of the mode adjusted energy release rate. The resulting crack growth laws are numerically integrated to produce delamination growth versus number of cycles diagrams. The model does not impose any restrictive assumptions on the relative thickness of the delaminated and the base plates, although transverse shear stress effects are not considered. Experimental results are presented for cross-ply graphite/epoxy specimens, and the results are compared with experimental results for unidirectional specimens. The test data are obtained for different delamination locations and for different values of applied compressive strain.