Failure analysis of composite laminates including biaxial compression

This report describes a continued effort on the development and application of the tensor polynomial failure criterion for composite laminate analysis. In particular, emphasis is given to the design, construction and testing of a cross-beam laminate configuration to obtain "pure' biaxial compression failure. The purpose of this test case was to provide to permit "closure' of the cubic form of the failure surface in the 1-2 compression-compression quadrant. This resulted in a revised set of interaction strength parameters and the construction of a failure surface which can be used with confidence for strength predictions, assuming a plane stress state exists. Furthermore, the problem of complex conjugate roots which can occur in some failure regions is addressed and an "engineering' interpretation is provided. Results are presented illustrating this behavior and the methodology for overcoming this problem is discussed.