Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer (CFRP) composites have become indispensable in the aerospace industry due to their superior mechanical properties. Delamination, often initiated by impact events, manufacturing defects or fatigue loading, reduces the stiffness and structural integrity of the structure. In actual structures delamination can propagate through multiple plies, causing both interlaminar and intralaminar fractures. Conventional finite element approaches, such as virtual crack closure technique (VCCT) and cohesive zone modelling (CZM), are inadequate for modelling both interlaminar and intralaminar failures. The purpose of this paper is to explain how to overcome these limitations by integrating the Extended Finite Element Method (XFEM) with cohesive zone surface‐based modelling. A comprehensive numerical model capable of accurately predicting both interlaminar and intralaminar crack propagation in multiangular CFRP composites under Mode‐1 loading is presented. Details of numerical modelling of various delamination interfaces and its comparison with experimental data are presented.
Shell-based cohesive elements tend to overestimate the compression ahead of the crack tip because of approximations in the penalty stiffness. In this study, the higher-order structural cohesive element previously developed by the authors is enhanced with a resin-rich layer-dependent penalty stiffness to improve both co...
Xiaopeng Ai, C. Kassapoglou, Bo-Yang Chen· 0 citations
Addressing the apparent contradiction between the macroscale pseudo‐ductile response of ceramic matrix composites (CMCs) and the intrinsic brittleness of their constituents, this study proposes a new trilinear cohesive zone model (CZM) to provide new insights into the mesoscale damage evolution mechanisms. Developed wi...
Xiao-Fei Hu, Zhen-Guo Lei, Yu Wang et al.· Journal of The American Cera...· 0 citations
Transverse fiber bridging is an extrinsic toughening mechanism in cross-ply composite laminates, but its numerical representation remains challenging because it involves coupled transverse cracking and interlaminar delamination. This study develops a cohesive-zone-based finite element model to investigate the apparen...
R. Wirawan, Mhd Sukri, M. Firdaus et al.· Proceedings of the Instituti...· 1 citation
This paper presents a study on multi‐scale modelling of progressive damage model in laminated composites using shell finite elements, with considerations for the effects of manufacturing defects. The approach utilises second‐order homogenisation with 5‐parameter shell formulation to capture the effects of complex sub‐s...
A. Hii, S. Hallett, Bassam El Said· International Journal for Nu...· 0 citations
This study investigates the manufacturing process, progressive damage behavior, and multiobjective structural optimization of 3D angle‐interlock woven composites (3DAWCs) fabricated via the resin transfer molding process. The 3DAWCs consist of T700‐12K carbon fiber preforms and an epoxy matrix system (LT‐5028A/B). A re...
Delamination is a critical damage mode in laminated composites, involving hidden layer separation that can compromise structural performance. This study presents an efficient finite element approach for free and forced vibration analyses of delaminated composite plates using a rectangular element. The effects of delami...
