Structural Integrity and Durability of Advanced Composites

7.2. Microdamage mechanisms in fiber-reinforced composites

In this section, we briefly describe some typical microdamage mechanisms initiated and accumulated in fiber-reinforced composite laminates. The idea is to emphasize typical and primary damage mechanisms that cause property degradation in composite materials, rather than providing a comprehension exposition on the damage-accumulation process that leads to failure of microdamage mechanisms at the ply and constituent scales for fiber composite materials under differential loading conditions.

7.2.1. Typical microdamage mechanisms

Some microdamage mechanisms are readily apparent during the manufacturing process (built-in defects), such as volumetric voids in matrix, broken fibers, fiber misalignment, ...