Progressive Delamination in a Laminated Shell

Application ID: 78271


Interfacial failure or delamination in a composite material can be simulated with a cohesive zone model (CZM). A key ingredient of a cohesive zone model is a traction-separation law that describes the softening in the cohesive zone near the delamination tip. This example shows the implementation of a CZM with a bilinear traction-separation law in a laminated composites using the Layered Shell interface. The capabilities of the CZM to predict mixed-mode softening and delamination propagation are demonstrated in the model.

The example illustrates the delamination initiation and propagation in a composite plate having two layers with an initial delaminated region at the interface. A compressive load is gradually applied and removed in a parametric study in order to predict the total interfacial damage in one load cycle.

This model example illustrates applications of this type that would nominally be built using the following products: