Stability condition for the evaluation of damage in three-point bending of a laminated composite

The study of the tensile strength of composite materials is far more complex than analysis of the properties of elasticity and plasticity. Indeed, during mechanical loading, micro-cracks in the matrix, the fibers break, debonding of the interfaces are created. The failure process of composites is of great diversity and cannot be described if even we know: the strength criterion of each individual component, the state of stress and strain in the material, the propagation phenomena cracks in the structure and nature of the interface between the matrix and the reinforcement. This information is only partially known and the obtained by the analysis of a stress limit beyond which there is destruction of the material is almost impossible. To partially process the issue, a solution lies in a mesoscopic approach of seeking a law to locate the ultimate strength of the material for a plane stress state. Tests on rectangular plates in bending PEEK/APC2 and T300/914 three were made and this in order to validate our approach, the calculation has been implemented in a nonlinear finite element code (Castem 2000), in order to make comparison with the numerical results. The results show good agreement between numerical simulation and the two materials; however, it would be interesting to consider other phenomena in the criterion.