Abstract: To investigate the transverse cracking of the aged cross-ply laminates, subjected to uniaxial tensile loading. For quasistatic tests, most cracks, initiated in the 90℃ plies, instantaneously cross the entire test specimen width from edge to edge. In this case, the investigation of transverse cracking is reduced to a two-dimensional analysis. In the other hand, when the laminate is subjected initially to the environmental conditions, the material properties will be affected by the variation of temperature and moisture, and are based on a micromechanical model of laminates. Consequently, the hygrothermal conditions degrade the stiffness of the laminate. This degradation is taken into account to assess the changes of the longitudinal modulus due to transverse cracking.

Key words: Transverse cracking, Hygrothermal aged cross-ply laminates, Stress perturbation function...