THE LAUNCH OF WWFE-II: BENCHMARKING OF 3D STRENGTH AND DAMAGE THEORIES FOR POLYMER FIBRE

摘要

Predicting the strength and deformation response of fibre reinforced composite materials under generalised conditions of lay-up and applied stress state is still the grand challenge for the composites research community. In 2004 the authors (together with Peter Soden) completed the first 'World-Wide Failure Exercise' (WWFE-I) which was aimed at benchmarking the status of current predictive techniques and to identify the magnitude of their shortfall. The present paper provides a strategy for building on the results of WWFE-I by proposing the launch of a second exercise of similar form, WWFE-II, thereby providing an impetus to the community such that the key theoretical deficiencies might be addressed. The paper is intended to trigger debate on the scope, choice and form of test problems that would be most applicable to validate and benchmark the latest theoretical candidates. Reliable test data are crucial to the success of the task and hence a plea for potential test cases backed by comprehensive data is made at the end of the paper.