Experimental investigation and numerical simulation of three-point bending fatigue of 3D orthogonal woven composite

This paper reports the three-point bending fatigue behavior of three-dimensional (3D) orthogonal woven composite (3DOWC) in experimental and finite element analysis (FEA) approach. In experimental, the S–N curve was obtained to illustrate the relationship between applied stress levels and number of cycles to failure. The stiffness variation was recorded to present the degradation of mechanical properties of the 3DOWC during the process of fatigue loading. Furthermore, the fatigue damage morphologies of the tested 3DOWC coupons were given to indicate the damage modes of different parts (resin, yarns, and their interface) of the composite under the range of stress levels. In FEA approach, a user-defined material subroutine UMAT which characterizes the stiffness matrix and fatigue damage evolution of the 3DOWC was developed and incorporated with a finite element code ABAQUS/Standard to calculate the maximum deflection of the 3DOWC during each loading cycle. The bending deformation at different loading cycles was also calculated. From the comparisons between FEA and experimental approaches, it is indicated that the proposed model is reasonable for calculating the fatigue bending deformation.