Abstract
An experimental test program has been carried out to verify the validity of a gen eralised residual strength degradation model for tension-tension fatigue of unidirec tionally reinforced unnotched carbon/epoxy composites. Further, the model is used for predicting the effect of a prior high load on the fatigue behaviour of these laminates. It is verified in the present program that a specimen is guaranteed to survive a certain minimum number of load cycles as predicted by the model after it has sur vived a proof load prior to fatigue. The correlation between statistical distributions of the fatigue life and the residual strength as predicted by the model and those deter mined experimentally, including the effect of proof load, is found satisfactory.
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