Damage States in Composite Materials

View the different damage states for composite materials.

If the constituent failure criteria are utilized in describing the response of a composite material without employing any additional forms of material nonlinearity, we can identify a discrete number of damage states for the composite. In the case of unidirectional composites, a total of three distinct damage states are modeled. In the case of woven composites, a total of nine damage states are modeled. Each distinct composite damage state can be characterized by the failed or unfailed status of the various constituent materials. In each case, the overall composite properties are obtained by homogenization of the RVE with each individual constituent appropriately represented by its failed or not-failed properties.