LAUSR

Abstract A progressive failure model including dynamic effects and thermal residual stresses able to simulate the failure and damage development of hybrid unidirectional polymer composites under fibre tensile loading is presented. The model is used to study the influence dynamic effects and thermal residual stresses have on the development of clusters of fibre breaks and the failure process of different hybrid composites. The results obtained show that while the dynamic effects change cluster formation, nonetheless they do not significantly alter the final failure of the material. Overall, the influence is greater for the more brittle materials. Although the thermal residual stresses do not affect the formation of clusters, they can delay damage initiation and final failure by inducing compressive stresses into the fibres.