On the feasibility of a three-point bending setup for the validation of (fatigue) damage models for thin composite laminates

After developing a damage model, validation of this model is a necessity. This validation should preferably be done under loading conditions which are different from the ones used for the development of the model. This study investigates whether a three-point bending setup is suited for the validation of fatigue material models for thin fiber-reinforced composites with a low bending stiffness, developed in uniaxial loading conditions. First, the three-point bending setup, which can be used for both single-sided and fully reversed loading, is discussed. Then, some results of experiments are presented. This is followed by the numerical modeling of the bending setup. It may be concluded that the three-point bending setup, although with very interesting loading conditions, is not ideally suited for model validation, due to the complicated and time-consuming numerical simulation. The material used for this study was a carbon fabric-reinforced polyphenylene sulphide.