Kulkarni, S.V.
McLaughlin Jr., P.V.
Pipes, R.B.
Rosen, B.W.

This paper describes an analytical/experimental correlation study performed to develop an understanding of the behavior of notched boron/epoxy laminates subjected to tension/tension fatigue loading. The static failure analysis of notched laminates used herein treats axial cracking in the load direction and transverse cracking across the specimen. The ″mechanistic wearout″ fatigue analysis uses this static failure model and embodies the concept that material properties in the notch region are continually changing with cyclic loading and that, if these properties are known at a given time, they could be used in the static failure analysis to compute residual strength and preferred mode of crack propagation. In order to verify the fatigue model, an experimental program of limited scope was undertaken to obtain boron/epoxy lamina data. Factors that hampered correlation of theory and experiment are analyzed.