Damage initiation at curved free edges - Application to uniaxially loaded plates containing holes and notches

The concept which imputes initial free edge interlaminar damage to the differences in material properties among adjacent laminae, formerly applied to straight free edges, is presently extended to the case of curved free edges through interpretation in terms of differences in the shear and elongation strains among adjacent laminae. Attention is given to both material property differences and laminate strain spatial distributions at the hole edge. Since a large strain level and a small difference in material properties are found to be as damaging as a small strain and large difference, interlaminar damage will probably begin at a circumferential location other than the net section. These findings are further explored in view of a second extension, using the edges replication technique to record damage at a curved free edge. The damage recorded for uniaxially loaded plates with central circular holes and semicircular edge notches are compared with difference theory predictions.