Abstract: An investiagtion was conducted to study tensile failure of composite laminates with an open hole. Both a numerical simulation and experiments were performed during the study. A three-dimensional finite element model for composite laminate with an open hole was built. The progressive damage analysis contains four parts: the constitutive model, calculating the stresses, failure criteria and the stiffness degradation. Many theories have been proposed based on different physical,mechanical or logical considerations. There were great differences by using difference theory. A three-dimensional stiffness degradation model based on the two-dimensional Zinoviev theroy and combined with the improved three-dimensional Hashin criterion was proposed. This paper described composite laminates′ failure process in three aspects: fiber failure, matrix failure and delamination failure, and predicted the ultimate tensile strengths and damage progression of the open-hole composite laminates. Overall, good agreement were found between numerical simulation and experiment. And, it proved the high accuracy of the three-dimensional stiffness reduction model, which could be used to guide the composite laminates′ progressive failure analysis.

Key words: composite laminates, progressive failure analysis, Zinoviev theory, three-dimensional finite element model