The failure of laminates is originated in plies loaded transverse to the fiber direction, e.g. in the 90° ply of a cross ply laminate. The initiation of failure is due to the debonding of individual fibers At some point the interface crack kinks into the matrix and propagates towards the inter-face of the neighbouring fiber. The cracks then continue propagating through the full ply. The interface failure obviously is the dominating process of the failure of plies in high fiber volume fraction composites. Several authors investigated the interfacial crack propagation on model systems. First, Varna and Paris studied the debonding process on a single fiber embedded in pure matrix under transverse ten-sion by fracture mechanical analyses. Correa and Paris performed experimental as well as numerical studies by calculating the mixed mode energy release rate under different loading conditions. These analyses were extended to fibers surrounded by a composite material by the present authors. Among others, Comninou as well as Sun and Jih have shown that the separation into a mode I and mode II energy release rate is not universal but the mixed mode ratio depends on the length of the crack increment. Comninou developed a solution of an interface crack between dissimilar media which reveals the even a small contact zone is found near the crack tip. As a result, the mode I part of the energy release rate vanishes because no opening of the crack takes place. The contact zone, however, is extremely small. If these mathematical phenomena, however, are relevant for physical problems is not verified.
The determination of the strength and the failure behaviour of fiber reinforced composites is a complex task. This is mainly due to the anisotropy and the inhomogeneiety of the material on the microscale. The strength or the fracture toughness of the interface between fiber and matrix is the key factor controlling the failure process on microscale, especially under loads transverse to the fiber axes.
The ultimate failure of a laminate is a complex process consisting of a large number of different subprocesses. Due to its highly dynamic nature on one hand and the microscopical scale on the other it is not possible to observe the ultimate failure directly or even to analyse it theoretically. However, long before ultimate failure occurs a large number of elementary failure processes take place in a rather
static manner or at least at low crack Propagation speed.
The failure of fiber reinforced composites under transverse loading is investigated on a
representative volume element. The volume element is composed of a twelve fiber hexagonal
array. The debonding of the central fiber is studied under transverse shear as well as under
transverse compressive loading by calculating the mode I and mode II part of the energy
release rate. The initiation of failure is assumed to take place at the location of maximum
tensile or maximum shear stresses, respectively. In order to determine the failure initiation
point, the stress field in the interface before crack initiation is calculated.