Failure Analysis and Fatigue Life Prediction of aComposite Structural Beam

摘要

The purpose of this study was to develop a tool to assess the long-term durabilityrnof a particular composite structural beam developed for the civil infrastructure market.rnThe fatigue performance under transverse loading is of particular interest. A globallocalrnfinite element stress analysis was utilized to examine the possibility of bothrndelamination and compression failures. The results of the analysis were comparedrnwith experimental test data. Despite the appearance of a delamination failure, thernpredictions based on the assumption of compression failure proved most successful.rnNext, a remaining strength approach was followed to predict the fatigue life of thernstructure. The damage kinetics of the critical and sub-critical elements were modeledrnusing coupon laminate test data. Full-scale fatigue tests were conducted to validate thernpredictions.