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Delamination growth in composite laminates of variable stiffness
Author(s) -
Yazdani Saleh,
Rust Wilhelm J. H.,
Wriggers Peter
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
international journal for numerical methods in engineering
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.421
H-Index - 168
eISSN - 1097-0207
pISSN - 0029-5981
DOI - 10.1002/nme.5264
Subject(s) - composite laminates , delamination (geology) , classification of discontinuities , stiffness , finite element method , structural engineering , traction (geology) , extended finite element method , materials science , curvilinear coordinates , composite material , engineering , geometry , mathematics , mathematical analysis , geology , mechanical engineering , paleontology , subduction , tectonics
Summary The production of new composite laminates with variable stiffness within the surface of plies was enabled by tow‐placement machines. Because of the variation of stiffness, these materials are called variable stiffness composite laminates (VSCL). Recently, many attempts were made to investigate their structural behaviour. In this contribution, a first‐order shear deformation theory is selected to model the multilayered composite laminates. The adopted theory is enhanced by the extended finite element method (XFEM) to describe discontinuities at element level of any interface of interest. To predict the location of the delamination onset, a traction–separation law is developed that is consistent with the XFEM topology. An exponential softening behaviour is implemented within the interface to model the delamination growth in a mixed‐mode direction. In order to solve the non‐linear equations of the delamination propagation, an arc‐length method is applied. The effect of the curvilinear fibre orientation on the location of the delamination onset is investigated. Subsequently, the structural response of the laminates is computed. According to the simplicity of the new approach using the XFEM; and based on the computational cost for calculating the stiffness of VSCL, the method is able to determine structural response of VSCL with less computational effort. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.