Progressive Transverse Cracking In Composite Laminates

HE DEVELOPMENT OF a satisfactory theory for cross-ply laminates which have been damaged by transverse matrix cracking under monotonic loading has attracted a substantial number of investigators. The formulation of a shear lag model appears to have been first proposed in a series of papers by Bailey and his co-workers [1,2,3,4,5,6]. This work, in turn, relies on some studies of unidirectional composites by Aveston and Kelly [6]. Subsequent contributions to the theory have geen given by Wang [7], Highsmith and Reifsnider [8], Flaggs and Kural [9], Nuismer and Tan [10], Manders, Chou, Jones and Rock [11], Fukunaga, Chou, Peters and Schulte [12], Flaggs [13], Ohira [14] and Ogin, Smith and Beaumont [15,16]. Doubtless a diligent search of the literature would disclose other related work.