A Multiscale Approach for Progressive Fatigue Failure Modeling of a Woven Composite RVE

Abstract

Use of fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) composites is becoming ubiquitous in highperformance aerospace structures due to their superior mechanical properties. Fatigue is an important design factor for use in these applications and due to the anisotropic nature of FRPs, it is difficult to predict their fatigue. A multiscale physics-based methodology is required to replace the phenomenological fatigue theories for FRP composites, which work for only specific scenarios and require extensive characterization data. Such a theory based on the kinetic theory of fracture (KTF) was used in this study to model fatigue in a plain woven fabric composite representative volume element (RVE). Fatigue damage initiation, propagation path and the damage amount in the constituents of the woven RVE as a function of load cycles were investigated. The S-N curves for the tension-tension and shear load cases were also determined.