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Results related to the buckling delamination of elastic and viscoelastic composite plates are reviewed and analyzed. They have been obtained during the last fifteen years by the author and his students. The plates contain cracks whose faces have initial infinitesimal imperfections. The evolution of the imperfections under compression of the plates is studied, and the values of critical parameters are determined from a criterion of initial imperfection. The study is performed with the use of 3D geometrically nonlinear field equations. In the present paper, the historical background of the problems is outlined considered, general remarks about the field equations and solution method are made, and problems related to the plane strain state are reviewed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Design and manufacture of composite test specimens with two embedded delaminations subjected to transverse tension is described in this paper. The behaviour of the specimens has been investigated through experimental testing and finite element analyses. Fracture mechanics approaches were applied to predict the initiation and growth of delaminations and the degradation of the load carrying capacity of the specimens. Models were generated in the FE software programs MSC.Nastran and Abaqus. The MSC.Nastran model was used to calculate strain energy release rates employing a crack tip element methodology. The Abaqus model was evaluated using the virtual crack closure technique. The accuracy of numerical solutions was established by qualitative and quantitative comparisons with the experimental measurements, the results obtained from the ultrasonic non-destructive inspections and microscopic examination. It was shown that fracture mechanics can be used to accurately predict the failure initiation locations and failure loads of composite specimens containing multi-level delaminations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A high fidelity assessment of accumulative damage of woven fabric composite structures subjected to aggressive loadings is strongly reliant on the accurate characterization of the inherent multi-scale microstructures and the underlying deformation phenomena. Damage in composite sandwich and joint structures is characterized by the coexistence of discrete (delamination) and continuum damage (matrix cracking and intralaminar damage). A purely fracture mechanics-based or a purely continuum damage mechanics-based tool alone cannot effectively characterize the interaction between the discrete and continuum damage and their compounding effect that leads to the final rupture. In this paper, a hybrid discrete and continuum damage model is developed and numerically implemented within the LS-DYNA environment via a user-defined material model. The continuum damage progression and its associated stiffness degradation are predicted based on the constituent stress/strain and their associated failure criteria while the discrete delamination damage is captured via a cohesive interface model. A multi-scale computational framework is established to bridge the response and failure predictions at constituent, ply, and laminated composite level. The calculated constituent stress and strain are used in a mechanism-driven failure criterion to predict the failure mode, failure sequence, and the synergistic interaction that leads to global stiffness degradation and the final rupture. The use of the cohesive interface model can capture the complicated delamination zone without posing the self-similar crack growth condition. The unified depiction of the continuum and discrete damage via the damage mechanics theory provides a rational way to study the coupling effects between the in-plane and the out-of-plane failure modes. The applicability and accuracy of the damage models used in the hybrid dynamic failure prediction tool are demonstrated via its application to a circular plate and a composite hat stiffener subjected to shock and low velocity impact loading. The synergistic interaction between the continuum and discrete damage is explored via its application to a sandwich beam subjected to a low velocity impact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper describes a theoretical study of delamination fracture in the functionally graded multilayered Crack Lap Shear (CLS) beam configuration with taking into account the nonlinear material behaviour. The fracture was analysed in terms of the strain energy release rate. The analytical solution derived is applicable for CLS with an arbitrary number of layers. Also, the delamination crack may be located arbitrary along the beam height. The mechanical behaviour of beam layers was modelled by a power-law stress-strain relation. It was assumed that the material in each layer is functionally graded along the thickness. Also, the material properties may be different in each layer. An analytical solution of the J-integral was derived in order to verify the nonlinear strain energy release rate analysis. The effects were evaluated of material gradient, crack location along the beam height and material nonlinearity on the strain energy release rate. It was shown that the analysis developed is a useful tool for the understanding of delamination fracture behaviour of functionally graded multilayered CLS beam configurations with material nonlinearity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The problem of quasistatic and rate-independent evolution of elastic-plastic-brittle delamination at small strains is considered. Delamination processes for linear elastic bodies glued by an adhesive to each other or to a rigid outer surface are studied. The energy amounts dissipated in fracture Mode I (opening) and Mode II (shear) at an interface may be different. A concept of internal parameters is used here on the delaminating interfaces, involving a couple of scalar damage variable and a plastic tangential slip with kinematic-type hardening. The so-called energetic solution concept is employed. An inelastic process at an interface is devised in such a way that the dissipated energy depends only on the rates of internal parameters and therefore the model is associative. A fully implicit time discretization is combined with a spatial discretization of elastic bodies by the BEM to solve the delamination problem. The BEM is used in the solution of the respective boundary value problems, for each subdomain separately, to compute the corresponding total potential energy. Sample problems are analysed by a collocation BEM code to illustrate the capabilities of the numerical procedure developed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Experiments are carried out to determine the delamination toughness for a crack along the interface between two transversely isotropic materials. The material chosen for study consists of carbon fibers embedded within an epoxy matrix. A crack is introduced between two layers of this material, with fibers in the upper layer along the + 45°-direction and those in the lower layer along the − 45°-direction both with respect to the crack plane. The Brazilian disk specimen is employed in the testing. To calibrate the specimens, stress intensity factors are obtained which result from the applied load, as well as residual curing stresses. It may be noted that all three modes are coupled, leading to a three-dimensional problem. The finite element method and a mechanical M-integral are employed to determine the stress intensity factors arising from the applied load. For the residual stresses, a three-dimensional conservative thermal M-integral is presented for stress intensity factor determination. The stress intensity factors found for the applied load and residual stresses are superposed to obtain a local energy release rate, together with two phase angles. From the load at fracture, the critical interface energy release rate or interface toughness $${{\mathcal G}_{ic}}$$ as a function of phase angles ψ and ϕ is determined. Results are compared to a fracture criterion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A direct energy balance approach has been developed and used to determine energy release rates in three and four point bend end notched flexure tests. This study was performed in the context of the larger goal of understanding the wide variation in mode II toughnesses that have been obtained by the two tests when used on the same material. The primary motivation for developing the direct energy balance approach was to fully account for the effects of friction, large deformations, and other geometric nonlinearities that occur during these tests. The direct energy balance approach simulates crack advance as it occurs in physical testing. Most significantly, this approach accounts for frictional dissipation that occurs during crack advance, which is an effect that has been neglected in previous analyses of these tests. The direct energy balance approach is used to show that, for most cases of practical interest, the virtual crack closure technique is quite accurate, and predictions by this latter approach are only in error when moderately large geometric nonlinearities occur prior to crack advance. Based on these results, a “cut-off value,” expressed in terms of the maximum slope in the specimen as predicted by classical beam theory, is suggested for the upper limit of applicability of the virtual crack closure technique. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carbon fiducial marks are formed during thin film local delamination processes induced either by superlayer indentation forming circular blisters, or by residual stress relief through telephone cord blister formations. Hydrocarbons are sucked into the crack tip during the delamination process, outlining the crack tip opening angle (CTOA), which can be used to back calculate thin film adhesion using either elastic or plastic analyses presented here. Fiducial marks have been observed in two different thin films systems, namely Cu/SiO2 and TiWXNY/GaAs. TiWXNY/GaAs system also exhibited biaxial compressive stress-induced phone cord buckling delaminations. Surface AFM CTOA measurement approach is used to estimate the strain energy release rate increase along these phone cords delaminations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]