An efficient and accurate framework to determine the failure surface/envelop in composite lamina

Abstract Failure criteria in composite material involves some unknown parameters that need to be determined through multiple biaxial testing. Inaccuracy in the determination of these parameters may require a larger safety factor for a reliable structural design. However, an accurate prediction of these parameters through multiple biaxial testing is a challenging task. In this context, we focus on loading mode sensitivity analysis and provide a framework for accurate and quick prediction of failure envelop in composite material. Although we demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed framework by using Tsai-Wu failure criteria, but it can be extended for other failure criteria as well. Here, we determine an optimal loading mode for unknown parameters in failure criteria. We then obtain the failure surface via a fast convergence process and find that only two biaxial tests in different loading quadrants are sufficient to obtain an accurate failure surface for the considered cases. Furthermore, we take into account the scattering in experimental data and establish a failure criteria with failure possibility. Overall, this work can be used as a guideline for a reliable failure prediction in composite materials.