Yield and failure theory for unidirectional polymer-matrix composites

This paper presents a unified theory of yield and failure criteria for unidirectional polymer-matrix composites (UD PMCs). This interactive unified theory considers the effect of normal stress on the shear strength by introducing a coupling term (q3σ22|τ21|). The coefficient q3 of the coupling term is an empirical value and equals to 0.2. The predictions of the unified theory are well agreeable with present and existing experiments. Furthermore,...