ABSTRACT
Except for a brief discussion in Section 7.8.2, the previous chapters of this book have not considered the analysis of the effects of notches, cracks, delaminations, or other discontinuities in composites. For example, the conventional strength analyses outlined in Chapter 4 involved the use of gross “effective lamina strengths” in various semiempirical failure criteria irrespective of specific micromechanical failure modes that are related to such discontinuities. While such procedures, along with the use of empirical “safety factors,” may produce a satisfactory design for static loading, failures may still occur due to the growth of cracks or delaminations under dynamic loading. The purpose of this chapter is to give an introduction to the analysis of fracture of composites due to cracks, notches, and delaminations.
