Modelling and simulation of the delamination in composite materials

Abstract

Delamination is a phenomenon characterized by the loss of adhesion between two adjacent laminae. This is a damage process frequently observed in composite materials and it may cause either loss of structural stiffness or total failure of the laminate. This contribution presents a model to describe composite delamination. The proposed model considers a laminate with a finite thickness interlayer. Interlaminar stresses are evaluated from a modified lamination theory. This result is used as input in the constitutive adhesion model which describes the damage evolution of the interlayer. An iterative numerical procedure is developed, solving the model equations separately. This work considers numerical simulations of a laminated tube and a laminated bar as applications of the proposed general formulation. Numerical results are capable of capturing the general behaviour of experimental data.