Fatigue Behavior of Impacted Carbon/Epoxy Laminates under 2-Stage Block Loading

The paper presents the fatigue behavior of carbon/epoxy laminates with impact-induced damage under 2-stage block loading. The impact damage parameter is proposed to evaluate the effect of impact damage on fatigue life. Based on this parameter, the model is developed to predict the residual life at second block. Also, the model for equivalent stress is proposed to estimate the fatigue life under 2-stage block loading based on the S-N curves under constant amplitude loading. For these models, the 2-stage block loading fatigue tests were performed on the impacted composite laminates. The effect of impact damage on fatigue life under 2-stage block loading can be characterized by the impact damage parameter. Additionally, the results by the present residual life prediction model agree with experimental results regardless of applied impact energy. Also, the equivalent stress and corresponding fatigue life by the present model agrees well with the experimental results.