Woodhead Publishing Fatigue Life Prediction of Composites and Composite Structures (Woodhead Publishing Series in Composites Science and Engineering)

Fatigue is the progressive and localised structural damage that occurs when a material is subjected to cyclic loading. The use of composites is growing in structural applications and there is a need to understand how they respond to loading. This authoritative book reviews ways of predicting the service life of composites subjected to variable amplitude, multiaxial and other types of loading. Key Features: examines past, present and future trends associated with fatigue life prediction of composite materials and structures; assesses novel computational methods for fatigue life modelling and prediction of composite materials under constant amplitude loading; specific chapters investigate fatigue life prediction of wind turbine rotor blades and bonded joints in composite structures. Contents: Introduction to the fatigue life prediction of composite materials and structures: Past, present and future. Part 1 Fatigue life modeling: Phenomenological fatigue analysis and life modeling; Residual strength fatigue theories for composite materials; Fatigue damage modeling of composite materials with the phenomenological residual stiffness approach; Novel computation methods for fatigue life modeling of composite materials. Part 2 Fatigue life prediction: Fatigue life prediction of composite materials under constant amplitude loading; Probabilistic fatigue life prediction of composite materials; Fatigue life prediction of composite materials based on progressive damage modeling; Fatigue life prediction of composite materials under realistic loading conditions (variable amplitude loading); Fatigue of fiber reinforced composites under multiaxial loading; A progressive damage mechanics algorithm for life prediction of composite materials under cyclic complex stress. Part 3 Applications: Fatigue life prediction of bonded joints in composite structures; Health monitoring of composite structures based on acoustic emission measurements; Fatigue life prediction of wind turbine rotor blades manufactured from composites.