International Journal of Aerospace and Lightweight Structures

doi: 10.3850/S2010428612000347

A Comparative Study for the Progressive Failure Analysis of Double-Notched Glass/Epoxy Composite Laminates

Dinh Chi Pham ¹Institute of High Performance Computing, A*STAR, 1 Fusionopolis Way, #16-16, Connexis, Singapore 138632. phamdc@ihpc.a-star.edu.sg

ABSTRACT

This work proposes a comparative study for the progressive damage analysis of doublenotched glass/epoxy composites with layups [90/0]s and [45/90/−45/0]s. The material property degradation method (MPDM) is used to model the intra-lamina failure whereas cohesive elements (CE) are employed to account for the delamination at the interfaces. Different fracture mechanics-based and continuum damage mechanics-based failure theories are considered in the MPDM-CE approach and a comparative study of these failure theories is presented. The predictions are compared with the experimental results reported by Hallett andWisnom [2006]. Reasonably good agreement between experiment and simulation is obtained, showing that the MPDM-CE approach can effectively predict the progressive failure in double-notched glass/epoxy composite laminates. Furthermore, it is significantly revealed that a modification scheme for the progressive failure modeling of fiber failure may be necessary to improve the strength prediction of notched composites.

Keywords: Progressive failure, Double-notched composite, Material Property Degradation Method (MPDM), Cohesive element, Failure criterion.

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