Three Stages of Fatigue Crack

Growth in GFRP Composite

Jie Tong
Department of Mechanical
and Manufacturing Engineering,
University of Portsmouth,
Anglesea Road,
Portsmouth PO1 3DJ, United Kingdom
Laminates
Multiple fatigue crack growth behavior has been studied in model transparent GFRP
laminates. Detailed experimental observations have been made on the growth of indi-
vidual fatigue cracks and on the evolution of cracks in off-axis layers in 0/90/ 45 S and
45/90 S laminates. Three stages of fatigue crack growth in the laminates have been
identified: initiation, steady-state crack growth (SSCG), crack interaction and saturation.
The results show that SSCG rate is essentially constant under constant load, independent
of crack length and crack spacing. Finite element models have been developed and used
to calculate the strain energy release rates associated with the off-axis matrix cracking. A
correlation has been achieved between fatigue crack growth rates in off-axis layers and
the total strain energy release rates. DOI: 10.1115/1.1286234

Introduction on laminate configuration only, fatigue processes seem to favor

Although fracture mechanics has been successfully applied in
characterization of fatigue crack propagation of metallic materials
for several decades, applications of fracture mechanics to deal
with fatigue crack growth in laminated composites have been very
limited. Representations of fatigue failure seem to have suffered
most from the tendency to extend isotropic, homogeneous mate-
rial concepts to anisotropic, heterogeneous ones. In metallic ma-
terials, fracture under cyclic loading is known to result from the
initiation and subsequent self-similar growth of a single dominant
flaw. Fatigue failure in composite laminates, however, involves
combination of several damage modes including matrix cracking,
delamination, and fiber fracture. The order in which each type of
damage occurs may vary depending on the constituent materials
and stacking sequence. In deliberately tailored laminates where
delamination and fiber fracture are suppressed, matrix cracking
still takes very complex forms, involving sequential initiation and
accumulation of multiple cracks in off-axis layers.
Fatigue damage in composite laminates has often been pre-
sented as fatiguelife diagrams Talreja 1 where limiting
strains are related with various failure modes. While such dia-
grams are valuable for design purposes, they offer little informa-
tion on the degradation of laminates due to damage evolution,
particularly when significant load-bearing capacity remains after
the initial matrix cracking. From a maintenance point of view, a
measure of fatigue damage accumulation in composites after a
certain period of service is crucial. Considerable work is required
to establish crack growth laws and to develop methods of evalu-
ating residual strength, stiffness, and life associated with fatigue
crack growth.
Local stress states of a damaged laminate have been used to
predict global behavior such as degradation of stiffness and
strength due to crack growth. Mechanistic models have been de-
veloped using a variety of approaches, e.g., shear-lag models
Highsmith and Reifsnider 2, Laws and Dvorak 3, elastic
analysis McCartney 4, variational method Nairn 5, and con-
tinuum damage mechanics Talreja 6. However, applications of
these models to fatigue situations have been far from satisfactory.
There are significant differences in damage behavior under mono-
tonic and cyclic loading conditions. For example, while saturation
transverse crack densities under static load are known to depend
Contributed by the Materials Division for publication in the JOURNAL OF ENGI-
NEERING MATERIALS AND TECHNOLOGY. Manuscript received by the Materials
Division October 11, 1999; revised manuscript received February 13, 2000. Associ-
ate Technical Editor: S. Mall.
shear mode cracking Tong et al. 7 and varied saturation crack
densities in off-axis layers are observed, depending on the applied
load level as well as laminate configuration Boniface et al. 8;
Tong et al. 7.
Applications of fracture mechanics to fatigue crack growth in
crossply laminates were attempted by Ogin et al. 9 and Boniface
et al. 10,11. Ogin et al. 8 developed an approximate expres-
sion for stress intensity factor as a function of the nearest-
neighbor crack spacing. Boniface et al. 10,11 were the first to
measure the individual transverse matrix crack growth and the
associated compliance change. The results show that stable trans-
verse fatigue crack growth rate is essentially independent of crack
length but dependent on crack spacing Boniface et al. 10,11.
Tong et al. 12 studied a general quasi-isotropic laminate and the
fatigue crack growth rates for individual 45 deg cracks as well as
90 deg cracks were found to be independent of crack length at low
crack densities.
This paper endeavors to draw the available information on fa-
tigue crack growth in composite laminates and aims to provide a
rational account of the phenomenon. Three laminate systems
((0/90/45) S , (45/90) S , (0/90) S) were considered and de-
tailed experimental observations were made on fatigue crack ini-
tiation and growth behavior. Fatigue tests were carefully designed
to obtain stable crack growth rates in off-axis layers as well as
overall mechanical responses such as the pattern of crack accu-
mulation and the associated stiffness reduction. The damage pro-
cesses were then simulated by finite element models. Strain en-
ergy release rates associated with 90 and 45 deg cracking were
calculated and correlated accordingly with the fatigue crack
propagation rates.
Experimental Methods
Materials and Laminates. E-glass fiber and an epoxy resin
matrix were used to produce a transparent GFRP system. The
laminates were fabricated using a simple filament winding tech-
nique. Stacking sequences of (0/90/45/45) S and (45/
45/90) S were adopted to promote matrix cracking and to avoid
premature delamination. The average fiber volume fraction was
62 percent and the ply thickness was 0.5 mm. The material prop-
erties were E145 GPa, E213 GPa, G125 GPa, 120.3, 23
0.42, and G234.6 GPa. Specimens 25 mm230 mm were
cut from the laminate sheets using a diamond saw.
Testing Method. Fatigue tests were carried out on Instron
servo-hydraulic testing machines under load control at a load ratio

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Fig. 1 A schematic of off-axis fatigue crack growth in a quasi-
isotropic laminate
Fig. 2 Three stages of fatigue crack growth pattern in GFRP
composite laminates. Stage I: Initiation and transient crack
growth 1S 0, a 2 d , dply thickness. Stage II: Steady-state
crack growth SSCG, da dN C . Stage III: Crack interaction
S 5 d and saturation S d , da dN \0.

of 0.1. Two types of tests were conducted. The first type consisted
of cyclic loading 10 Hz at three constant load levels correspond-
ing to maximum stresses of 0.9 t , t , and 1.18 t , where t is
the threshold stress for the onset of matrix cracking under quasi-
static loading. The second type involved a controlled cyclic load-
ing at varied load levels and at lower frequencies 5 Hz. This
latter procedure allows the evolution of matrix cracks in 45 as
well as 90 deg layers to be recorded. The development of matrix
cracks was monitored and photographed at regular intervals using
transmitted light and crack lengths were subsequently obtained
from the photographs. Full details of laminate fabrication and me-
chanical testing procedures are given elsewhere Tong et al. 7.
Experimental Observations. Fatigue crack growth pattern in
a quasi-isotropic laminate is illustrated in Fig. 1. During the first
type of tests, matrix cracks in 90 deg plies developed from both
edges of the specimen and grew stably across both the thickness
and the width of the specimen. Transient crack growth prevailed
initially until the crack length became about double the 90 deg ply
thickness. Further crack growth became steady-state in nature.
Crack growth rates remained approximately constant as long as
the distance between the cracks was sufficiently large compared
with the ply thickness. Cracks in the adjacent plies, 45 deg,
started to grow from the edges of the existing 90 deg cracks
shortly after the transverse cracking. These cracks grew to a high
density but remained generally small. Cracks in the 45 deg layers
developed at a later stage and grew stably along the fiber direc-
tion. Cracks in all plies increased their densities with the increase
of fatigue cycles but only the transverse cracks reached saturation
when local delamination occurred. The number of fatigue cycles
required for the onset of cracking in each ply varies significantly
with the applied stress level. Fatigue cycling clearly favored ma-
trix cracking as cracks were initiated at a stress level 10 percent
lower than the threshold stress under quasi-static loading Tong
et al. 7.
seems to suffice to describe the onset of the matrix cracks, with
the exponent 0.3 to 0.4. Load level seems to play a part in
dictating the number of cycles required for the initiation of matrix
cracks in a particular ply. When the load range is increased toward
the fracture load of the laminate 300 MPa, cracks are expected
to grow instantaneously in all plies.
This stage of crack growth also includes the initial transient
crack growth, typically when the crack length is less than double
the ply thickness. Crack growth rates are amorphous as a result of
strong influence of local heterogeneity.
Steady-State Crack Growth SSCG. Transient crack
growth appeared to prevail after the crack length became about
double the 90 deg ply thickness. Further crack growth became
essentially stable with the crack growth rates remained fairly con-
stant under constant load. Presented in Fig. 4 are experimental
results where individual 90 and 45 deg crack lengths are re-
corded as a function of fatigue cycles. Figure 4a shows the crack
growth pattern of three transverse cracks. Under the constant load
71 MPa, R0.1, the crack growth rates remained constant
at 5.2107 m/cycle. Deviations from linearity occurred when
cracks from opposite edges overlap at a reduced crack spacing,
typically S5d, where d is the ply thickness and S is the vertical

Fatigue Crack Growth Behavior

Three stages of fatigue crack growth in off-axis plies may be
identified from the experimental results, as illustrated in Fig. 2.
These include: initiation and transient crack growth; steady-state
crack growth; and crack interaction and saturation. The character-
istics of crack growth in each stage are described as follows.
Initiation. Figure 3 shows the onset of matrix cracks in 90,
45, and 45 deg plies in a (0/90/45) S laminate. Applied lami-
nate stress range is plotted against the number of load cycles to Fig. 3 Onset of matrix cracks in 90, 45, and 45 deg plies of
matrix crack initiation. A Basquin type of equation, NfC, 09045 S laminates under cyclic loading

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 Fig. 5 Matrix crack densities as a function of number of fa-
tigue cycles for 09045 S laminates at three stress levels
th84 MPa

cracks in the next off-axis ply, 45 deg layer, in this case. In

addition, 90 deg crack densities at saturation increase with the
increase of stress level, with 1/S 900.5 at max76 MPa com-
pared to 1/S 900.64 at max99 MPa. A similar trend applies to
45 deg crack densities, although the latter were far from satura-
tion when local delamination occurred.
Experimental work on (45/90) S and previous work on
(0/90) S Ogin et al. 9; Boniface et al. 10,11 reveal a similar
trend. In general, the results show that crack growth rates decrease
with the decrease of crack spacing until saturation. Presented in
Fig. 6 are the individual crack growth rates in 90 deg plies in a
(0/90/45) S laminate as a function of crack spacing. The relation
may be described by the fitted curve for this laminate system.
Once matrix cracks become saturated in the weakest ply, the
three stages of fatigue crack growth start again in the next suscep-
tible ply as shown in Fig. 2 and the damage processes continue
Fig. 4 Individual steady-state crack growth as a function of until an additional failure mode, such as delamination, sets in.
number of fatigue cycles in a 90 deg plies and b 45 deg Stiffness reduction tends to be very significant during the course
plies of crack interaction and saturation due to the increase in crack
density. Local heterogeneity is also expected to play an important
role in modifying the crack growth behavior.
distance between a growing crack and its closest overlapping
crack Fig. 2. Crack growth rates decreased drastically when the
crack spacing dropped to less than a ply thickness Fig. 4a.
Cracks in 45 deg plies appeared to grow faster but the crack
growth rates remained constant and increased with the increase of
the applied load, as shown in Fig. 4b ( 1 79 MPa, 2
83 MPa, 3 93 MPa. Crack growth rates of four cracks
under 1 compare well while marked increases in crack growth
rates are observed under higher loads.
SSCG is of practical significance as crack growth rates depend
on load and laminate configuration only. A laminate may then be
treated as a homogeneous orthotropic continuum and crack driv-
ing force may be calculated using 2D elastic solutions.
Crack Interaction and Saturation. Crack spacing seems to
control the crack growth rate once S is comparable to the ply
thickness typically S5d). Crack interactions occur when re-
duced crack growth rates are observed under a constant load. With
the decrease of the crack spacing the crack growth rates decrease
further towards saturation and virtually no further crack growth in
the ply when Sd Fig. 2. This phenomenon may also be appre-
ciated when the collective data, crack densities (1/S) in 90 and
45 deg layers, are plotted as a function of the loading cycles, as
shown in Fig. 5. The saturation of matrix cracks in 90 deg plies Fig. 6 Fatigue crack growth rates in 90 deg plies as a function
seems to correspond approximately to the rapid accumulation of of crack spacing S

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 A Fracture Mechanics Characterization
Formulation. A general expression for strain energy release
rate was developed to describe matrix cracking in a laminate.
Under constant load P, the strain energy release rate may be ex-
pressed as
1 2 dC
G P (1)
2 dA
where C is the compliance and A is the crack interfacial area.
Compliance change in a laminate may be regarded as the conse-
quence of matrix cracking in all off-axis plies in the absence of
the other forms of damage. The compliance may be written as
Cg S i ,S j ,S k , . . . (2)
where S is the crack spacing and subscripts i, j, k, . . . represent
different off-axis plies. The compliance change follows

dC 1 g 1 g
sin i dS i sin j dS j
dA dA i Si dA j S j

1 g
sin k dS k . . . , (3)
dA k Sk
where is the angle between the fiber and the loading axis. As-
suming that the cracks constantly rearrange to the new crack spac-
ing and grow across the width and the thickness of the specimen
simultaneously, then

dA n L 1

1
2S n 2S n1
dW (4)

Here L is the effective gauge length, S n , S n1 are the crack spac-

ings before and after crack growth, ni, j,k, . . . ,d is the ply
thickness and W is the specimen width.
For SSCG, compliance change dC/dA is constant, strain en-
ergy release rate is a function of load only.
Finite Element Analysis. Finite element models were devel-
oped to simulate the matrix crack growth behavior observed in the
experiments and to facilitate the calculation of the rate of compli-
ance change associated with the crack growth in 90 and 45 deg
layers. A quadrant was analyzed using the symmetry of the lami-
nate. The load was applied via a prescribed displacement. Ten-
noded biquadratic generalized plane strain quadrilateral elements
were used to simulate crack growth in a (0/9045) S laminate
Tong et al. 12,13. 3D models were developed to simulate
crack growth across the width of the specimen in a (45/90) S
laminate.
To obtain the strain energy release rate due to 90 deg cracking,
representative models of a (0/90/45) S laminate were con-
structed in which an infinite array of 90 deg cracks was assumed.
Compliance was calculated for various crack spacings and the
results are presented Fig. 7a as a function of normalized crack SSCG.
spacing. Results from a 3D finite element analysis for a
(45/90) S laminate are also presented. Results for (0/90) S lami-
nate are from a shear-lag analysis presented in Boniface et al.
11 and are included for comparison. In general, compliance
increases significantly with the increase of crack density. The
most significant increase in compliance is found for (0/90) S lami-
nate, being of the least constraint among the three laminates.
In Fig. 7b, the rate of compliance change is presented as a
function of 90 deg crack spacing. It seems clear that there exists a
critical value for each laminate above which the compliance
change, hence the strain energy release rate G, becomes constant
under constant load. The critical value seems to depend on lami-
nate configuration only. The effect of crack growth across the
width of a laminate was examined in a (45/90) S laminate. Less
than 5 percent of difference in G was found for low crack densi-
ties (1/S0.3) and a maximum difference of 16 percent was ob-
Fig. 7 a Normalized compliance change due to 90 deg crack-
ing for 090 S , 09045 S and 4590 S laminates; b nor-
malized compliance change rate due to 90 deg cracking for
090 S , 09045 S and 4590 S laminates.
tained at crack density 1/S0.4, when delamination was ob-
served. These results compare well with previous results Guild
et al. 14 for crossply laminates. For all three laminate systems
examined, the results confirm that strain energy release rate is
essentially independent of crack length and crack spacing when
S5d. This is consistent with the experimental findings during
In (0/90/45) S laminates, 45 deg cracks were far from satu-
ration at the end of the test with an average crack density of about
0.2 to 0.3 Tong et al. 7. As the change in compliance appears
to be constant at low 90 deg crack densities Fig. 7b, it seems
reasonable to assume that the same trend applies to 45 deg
cracking with g/ S 45constant when 1/S 450.3. To analyze the
45 deg cracking, and to relate the strain energy release rate from
the finite element results to the measured 45 deg crack growth
rates, a model was established in which 1/S 900.8 and S 45 /S 90
3 were assumed. The compliance change due to 45 deg crack-
ing for the constant 90 deg crack spacing was calculated and
dC/dA3.7106 N1 m1 was obtained. The strain energy
release rates at various load levels were then calculated and cor-
related with the 45 deg crack growth rates. A similar analysis
was not pursued for (45/90) S laminates since only few 45 deg
cracks developed at the onset of local delamination. The effect of

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Fig. 8 Fatigue crack growth rates in 90 and 45 deg plies as a
function of total strain energy release rates
small 45 deg cracks was ignored in all analyses as they seem to
make only a minor contribution to the degradation of the laminate
properties Tong et al. 7.
The fatigue crack growth rates of 90 and 45 deg cracks in a
(0/90/45) S laminate were correlated with the associated total
strain energy release rates and the results are summarized in Fig.
8, showing good correlation in both cases. A more practical ap-
proach may be to use global indicators such as crack density or
stiffness reduction. Further work is to explore the relationship
between crack growth rate/crack density/stiffness reduction and
residual fatigue strength, stiffness and life so that a reliable pre-
dictive tool could be established in fatigue damage assessment of
laminated structures and components.
Conclusion
Fatigue crack growth in off-axis layers in GFRP laminates may
be described in three stages: initiation; steady-state crack growth;
and crack interaction and saturation. Strain energy release rate
may be used to correlate the crack growth rate in off-axis plies.
While local heterogeneity may influence initial and interactive
crack growth, steady-state crack growth is essentially stable, in-
dependent of crack length and crack spacing. The concept of
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steady-state crack growth allows a homogeneous anisotropic con-
tinuum treatment of laminated composites which could be ex-
plored in other laminate systems.
Acknowledgments
Most of the experimental work and part of FE work were car-
ried out while the author was with the Department of Materials
Science and Engineering, University of Surrey, U.K. as part of a
EPSRC funded project. The author wishes to acknowledge the
technical discussions with Drs. P. A. Smith, S. L. Ogin, and F. J.
Guild while she was at Surrey.
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