An invariant-based theory of composites

A novel invariant-based approach to describe elastic properties and failure of composite plies and laminates is proposed. The approach is based on the trace of the plane stress stiffness matrix as a material property, which can be used to reduce the number of tests and simplify the design of laminates. Omni strain failure envelopes are proposed as the minimum inner failure envelope in strain space, which defines the failure of a given composite material for all ply orientations. The proposed approach is demonstrated using various carbon/epoxy composites and offers radically new scaling to improve design and manufacturing. (C) 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.