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In this work, a multi-linear material model for elastic-plastic response of ductile adhesives is proposed. Indeed, the proposed formulation allows to evaluate equivalent stress and strains to be used as material model input in FE commercial codes instead of the classical true stress and true strains. The presented model, which is capable to simulate the plasticity related phenomena and the failure event, has been implemented in the FEM code ABAQUS and used to numerically simulate the mechanical behaviour of adhesively bonded joints in traction. Several joints configurations have been considered with ductile, fragile and mix adhesives’ behaviour to test the effectiveness and the range of applicability of the proposed model. Encouraging comparisons with literature experimental data demonstrates the added value of the suggested material model in predicting the failure of adhesively bonded joints.

A numerical procedure for the design of impact damage resistant composite laminated structures is proposed in the present paper. This procedure, based on probabilistic analyses, is able to support the design of complex composite laminated structures by accounting for the scatter in composite materials' mechanical properties (related to the mutable environmental conditions experienced by an aircraft component during its service life) and by accounting for the uncertainty on accidental impacts locations. A failure criterion, based on the determination of the threshold critical impact energy for impact induced delaminations’ onset, is adopted for the evaluation of the damage resistance of composite laminated structures, in the frame of the introduced probabilistic analyses. The proposed procedure has been implemented into a commercial FEM platform and composite panels have been used as numerical benchmarks to investigate the influence of the combined material properties and impact location uncertainties on composite laminated structures’ impact damage resistance. A further comparison between two different stiffened composite panels designs have been introduced to highlight the added value of the proposed impact damage resistance probabilistic approach in terms of safety and effectiveness, with respect to the standard deterministic tools.

The damage tolerance of delaminated composite panels under compressive load is usually numerically evaluated by means of computationally expensive non-linear approaches. In this study, an alternative numerical linear approach, able to mimic the delamination propagation initiation, is proposed. With the aim to exploit its benefits, in terms of computational costs reduction, the proposed linear methodology has been used in this study in conjunction with an optimization analysis to assess the damage tolerance of stiffened composite panels with an impact induced delamination under compression. Indeed, the optimization was aimed to find the minimum delamination growth initiation load for a delaminated stiffened panel with variable delamination size and position, providing indications on the damage tolerance capability of the stiffened panel with an arbitrary positioned and sized delamination induced (as an example) by a low energy impact.

Laminated composite structures are increasingly finding more applications in various fields thanks to their lower weight if compared with other materials of the same strength. Nevertheless, composites thin plates show a critical behavior in terms of damage propagation mechanisms when subjected to (low velocity) impact. Indeed they tend to produce delaminations which can be hardly detected by optical inspections and can affect the global load carrying capability, leading to a premature structural collapse. The aim of this paper is to assess the capabilities of the Davies-Zhang approach (introduced in 1994 and aimed to the estimation of both the delamination initiation impact load and the size of the impact induced delaminations) by using a multiscale FE model based on the mesh superposition technique. Indeed the impact area has been modeled layer-wise with an element per layer while the rest of the structure has been modeled at laminate level by layered elements by means of a homogenization approach for the determination of the equivalent laminate material properties. The impact induced delamination area has been determined by adopting stress-based criteria. The results (in terms of delamination initiation impact force and delamination size) have been compared to the ones obtained by adopting the Davies-Zhang approach.

In this paper the effects of the stacking sequence on the fatigue intra-laminar damage accumulation in pinned composite joints is investigated. A fatigue damage propagation numerical model based on gradual material degradation rules and Hashin fatigue failure criteria is formulated, implemented in a finite element platform and then used to simulate the intra-laminar fatigue damage evolution in the analysed composite joints. The model has been preliminary validated against literature experimental data in terms of s-n curves providing confirmation of its effectiveness in predicting the joints fatigue life. Different stacking sequences: zero-dominated, quasi-isotropic, cross-ply with different 0 ° and 90 ° plies distributions, have been considered when investigating the influence of the stacking sequence on the fatigue behaviour of the joints. The simulation of the joints’ fatigue life provided detailed information on the intra-laminar damage mechanisms on-set and evolution related to fatigue gradual degradation of material stiffness and strength for different values of the applied maximum stresses.

A numerical/experimental study on the monitoring of the skin buckling phenomenon in stiffened composite panels by embedding optical fibres is presented in this paper. A numerical procedure has been introduced able to provide the most efficient embedded optical fibre path (with minimum length) fulfilling the grating sensors locations and directions requirements whilst satisfying specific embedding/integrity constraints for the optical fibre. The developed numerical procedure has been applied to a stiffened composite panel under compression load. The best location and direction of the grating sensors and the optimal optical fibre path for the monitoring of the skin buckling phenomenon have been found by performing respectively non-linear FEM analyses and optimization analyses. The procedure has been validated by means of an experimental testing activity on a stiffened panel instrumented with embedded optical fibres and back-to-back strain gauges which have been positioned according to the numerically estimated grating sensors locations and directions.

The present paper introduces a numerical study on the fire behavior of composites during exposure to a heating source at high incident power. A novel numerical model is proposed which is able to simulate the behavior of composite materials in fire environment providing the composites mass loss rate and heat release rate during heating source application. Two commercial software have been selected as platforms for the implementation of the proposed numerical model COMSOL and ANSYS. In COMSOL the model has been implemented by introducing proper field equations, while a macro, written in Ansys Parametric Design Language, has been used to allow the ANSYS FEM code to numerically simulate, by an incremental procedure, all the relevant physical phenomena related to fire. As an application, an experiment on thermal degradation over a laminated composite plate has been numerically simulated and the numerical model has been validated by comparing the COMSOL and Ansys numerical results to experimental literature data in terms of temperature profile over the panel thickness, Mass Loss Rate and Heat Release Rate. An excellent agreement has been found between the obtained numerical results and the experimental test data for both the adopted numerical platforms. However the ANSYS implementation, which showed to be the most effective in terms of accuracy of results and perspectives of applications to complex numerical models, led to the definition of a powerful tool able to assesses the fire performance of composite structures. © 2013 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate on the behaviour of a delaminated stiffened panel; the delamination growth is simulated via fracture elements implemented in B2000++® code based on the Modified Virtual Crack Closure Technique (MVCCT), matrix cracking and fibre failure have been also taken into account. Design/methodology/approach – In order to correctly apply the MVCCT on the delamination front a very fine three-dimensional (3D) mesh is required very close to the delaminated area, while a 2D-shell model has been employed for the areas of minor interest. In order to couple the shell domain to the solid one, shell-to-solid coupling elements based on kinematic constraints have been used. Findings – Results obtained with the global/local approach are in good correlation with those obtained with experimental results. Originality/value – The global/local approach based on kinematic coupling elements in conjunction with fracture elements allows to investigate and predict the behaviour of a stiffened delaminated composite panel in an efficient and effective way.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate and to assess the capabilities of the most common finite element (FE)‐based tools to deal with global‐local analysis. Two kinds of coupling were investigated: shell to shell and shell to solid.Design/methodology/approachThe issue of connecting non‐matching FE global and local models, characterized by different mesh refinements and/or different element types, was addressed by introducing appropriate kinematic constraints on the nodes at the interfaces. The coupling techniques available in the three FE‐based codes (ABAQUS®, NASTRAN® and ANSYS®), were assessed by applying them on a common numerical test case (non‐linear buckling analysis of a square plate). Results of the global‐local simulations were compared to the results obtained for relevant reference solutions.FindingsThe continuity of displacements and stresses across the interface between global and local models and the influence of the presence of the local model on the global model solution were used as parameters to test the quality of the results. It was observed that the tools implemented in the different codes provide different results. The results characterized by a higher quality were found by using the Multi Point Constraint available in ABAQUS®.Originality/valueWhen dealing with complex structures, multi‐scale (global‐local) approaches are commonly adopted to optimize the computational cost by increasing mesh refinements and/or introducing elements with different formulations in specific region of the structures identified as “local model”. In this paper an overview of the coupling tools available in the main commercial FE code is given.