Survey of Failure and Post-Failure Theories of Laminated Fiber-Renforced Composites

Abstract

This paper reviews the existing theories of failure of laminated fiber-reinforced composite materials. The failure theories of isotropic materials are also reviewed. There exist at least 30 failure theories for laminated composites. Some of these theories are applied directly to the laminate while the rest of the theories are applied to the individual layers of the laminate. In addition, the paper reviews the theories of the post-failure behavior of laminated composites, that is, the behavior of laminated composites beyond first ply failure. For this analysis there exist at least twelve theories, which are included in this survey.