A thick level set interface model for simulating fatigue-drive delamination in composites

This paper presents a new damage model for simulating fatigue-driven delamination in composite laminates. This model is developed based on the Thick Level Set approach (TLS) and provides a favorable link between damage mechanics and fracture mechanics through the non-local evaluation of the energy release rate. Previously, this approach has been...

Static and dynamic through thickness lamina properties of thick laminates

Thick laminates are increasingly present in large composites structures such as wind turbine blades. Different factors are suspected to be involved in the decreased static and dynamic performance of thick laminates. These include the effect of self-heating, the scaling effect, and the manufacturing process influence. The aim of this work is to...

Simulation of cusp formation in mode II delamination

On the microlevel, cusps are formed during delamination crack growth under mode II loading conditions. In this work, two different approaches to simulate this process are presented. Firstly a cohesive zone method where cohesive segments are introduced between a pair of neighbouring elements when the traction between those elements exceeds the...

Static and fatigue performance of thick laminates test design and experimental compression results

Simulation of complex failure mechanisms in composite laminates with the phantom node method and a dissipation based arclength method