Effect of High Load on Statistical Fatigue of Unnotched Graphite/Epoxy Laminates*

The purpose of this paper is to verify experimentally the theoretical model for predicting the effect of the high load (or proof load) on the fatigue behavior of unnotched composite laminates. It is confirmed by the present test program that a specimen is guaranteed to survive a certain number of load cycles as predicted by the theoretical model, after the specimen has survived a high load or proof load prior to fatigue loading. The correlation between the test results and the theoretical distributions of the fatigue life and the residual strength due to the effect of high load is satisfactory.