Predictive Assessment of Progressive Damage in Mechanically Fastened Glass–Epoxy Composites

ABSTRACT Ensuring the structural integrity of advanced composites necessitates precise methodologies for forecasting the onset and progression of damage. This research focused on the predicting progressive damage (PD) for riveted joints composite laminates employing a combined experimental and numerical framework. This study coupled experiments and simulations to track PD in riveted joint glass–epoxy joints under quasi‐static tension, accounting for both matrix and fiber failures. For this, the baseline data from standard ASTM tests were provided and the measured properties were directly fed into the finite element model. Then, three failure criteria, HASHIN, Tsai‐Wu, and Tsai‐Hill, were used to identify the ultimate collapse layers, but none of them were able to capture the first appearance of matrix cracking or fiber rupture. To fill this gap, a PD subroutine was built into the FE code to track the entire evolution from the initial defect to the final rupture. Comparing HASHIN, Tsai‐Hill and Tsai‐Wu criteria showed that for seven‐ply laminates HASHIN predicted zero ply failure while Tsai‐Hill flagged 85.7% (6/7) and Tsai‐Wu 71.4% (5/7) in the primary layer, and for five‐ply laminates Tsai‐Hill and Tsai‐Wu each identified 20% (1/5) failed plies per layer whereas HASHIN again reported none, underscoring HASHIN's fail‐safe conservatism versus the other two criteria’ ability to spotlight risk‐critical plies for material efficient design.