Development of the Views of Yu.N. Rabotnov on Strength Criteria of Composites

Besides the well-known fundamental works of Yu.N. Rabotnov in the field of hereditary elasticity and creep theory, one of the aspects of his scientific activity was the mechanics of composite materials and, in particular, a new class of strength criteria for structurally anisotropic composites proposed by him. The main feature of Yuri Rabotnov’s approach was not an attempt to construct a uniform smooth limiting surface in the stress-space, but taking into account real fracture mechanisms, which, as a rule, are directional in nature. Now such approaches become crucial in calculation algorithms modeling the fracture process with taking into account the degradation of elastic and strength properties, but in the period of the first Yu.N. Rabotnov’s papers they were pioneering and caused certain discussions. Development and application of some of Rabotnov’s proposed types of strength criteria for fiber-reinforced composites in tension, compression and complex stress state are discussed in this anniversary paper.