Failure Theories

 They give a criteria used to hypothesize

the failure
 Every material has certain strength,
expressed in terms of stress or strain,
beyond which it fails to carry the load
 Useful in design of structural components
 Material development
 Composites
 A composite is a structural material that
consists of two or more constituents that
are combined at a macroscopic level
 Has a reinforcing phase and matrix phase
(usually continuous)
 Advanced composites – application in
aerospace industry and commercial
purposes
 Composites
 Analysis and design is very difficult as
they are not made up of single material
 Anisotropic and non-homogeneous
 Composite is made up of a number of
laminas stacked over each other
 Micro and macromechanical approaches
 Understanding mechanical analysis of
lamina helps in understanding that of
laminate structure as a whole
Strength failure theories of
angle lamina

 Maximum stress theory

 Maximum strain theory
 Tsai-Hill theory
 Hoffman theory
 Tsai-Wu theory
 Norris theory
 Hankinson formula
 Failure of angle lamina
 Unidirectional lamina subjected to biaxial
loading
 Material is orthotropic
 Most of the strength measurements are
based on uniaxial test data
 Transformation of strength tensor is done
and it results in “phenomenological
failure criterion”
 Concept and features
 Develop an envelope or failure surface
that represents the end of elastic behavior
under multiaxial stress state
 Failure data is curve-fit with an equation
suitable for design purposes
 Simplification / Approximation
 Lose ability to determine the mode of
failure
 Basic strength parameters
 Longitudinal tensile strength (Xt)
 Longitudinal compressive strength (Xc)
 Transverse tensile strength (Yt)
 Transverse compressive strength (Yc)
 In-plane shear strength (S)
Failure Envelope
Biaxial load = off-axis loading of
unidirectional lamina
TSAI-HILL FAILURE THEORY
 Based on interaction concept

 Extension of von Mises yield criterion

 Constants G, H, F, L, M, N are to be
determined
 If only τ12 acts on the lamina
 If σ1 alone acts on the body

 Similarly,

 Solving all the equations simultaneously

 Final Expression
 Lamina will usually be loaded in plane
stress condition in 1-2 plane as it is strong
in carrying in-plane stresses

 Transverse isotropy in 2-3 plane implies

Y=Z
 Final criteria is
 Features
 It considers the interaction among the
three unidirectional lamina strength
parameters.
 It gives single criteria instead of a number
of sub-criteria
 It does not distinguish between the
compressive and tensile strengths in the
equation
 It underestimates the failure stress because
the transverse tensile strength is much less
than its transverse compressive strength
 Failure Envelope
 Values of X and Y have to be substituted
according to the quadrant of stress space
in which the stresses lie
 The failure envelope in stress space
consists of four different segments that are
continuous in value but not in slope at the
uniaxial strengths.
Comparison with experiments
HOFFMAN FAILURE THEORY
 Takes into account different strengths in
tension and compression
 Added linear terms to Tsai-Hill criterion

 Final expression is
 Failure envelope
 Ellipsoid symmetric about the σ1-σ2 plane
 Centre is at

 Principal axis is at

 When Xc=Xt and Yc=Yt , β = 45° and

centre of ellipsoid is at origin
Failure envelope
Comparison with experiments
TSAI-WU FAILURE THEORY
 Improve the correlation between theory
and experiment
 Increase the number of terms in the
prediction equation
 Failure surface in six-d stress space is of
form

 Fi and Fij are stress tensors

 Orthotropic lamina in plane stress
condition

 Linear term – differentiate between tensile

and compressive strengths
 Quadratic – represent ellipsoidal failure
surface
 Subjecting to various uniaxial tests ,
constants are determined
 Need for biaxial test
 F12 is the coefficient of the product of σ1
and σ2 in the failure criterion
 Cannot be determined from any uniaxial
tests
 A state of biaxial tension can be imposed
by σ1 = σ2 = σ
 Features
 Increased curve-fitting capability over the
Tsai-Hill and Hoffman criteria because of
an additional term in the equation
 The additional term, F12, can be
determined only with an expensive and
difficult-to-perform biaxial test
 It is more general than Tsai-Hill and
Hoffman criteria and invariant under
rotation or redefinition of coordinates.