A novel continuum damage mechanics model for 2D woven fabrics has been developed and implemented in a VUMAT subroutine for Abaqus/Explicit. The model takes into account the shear non-linearity, the toughening mechanisms associated to tensile failure, and the influence of shear stresses in the initiation and propagation of tensile damage.

The non-linear shear behavior is reproduced by means of a Ramberg-Osgood equation. Permanent deformation, and the degradation of the secant shear modulus associated to the accumulation of matrix damage have been coupled to the formulation of this unidimensional plasticity law. The physical reference required to define completely the shear constitutive response proposed can be obtained from the experimental tensile test of ±45 off-axis coupons. Failure initiation in tension is identified using Hashin's quadratic failure criterion, which accounts for the interaction of shear stresses in the promotion of tensile failure. A bilinear softening relation was selected to represent the combination of fibre breakage and toughening mechanisms characteristic of the intralaminar tensile fracture of these materials. Effort was placed on the development of a procedure for calibrating the softening relation associated to this failure mode. Specifically, this work addresses the applicability of linking the definition of a bilinear tensile damage law in homogenized continuum damage mechanics models for woven composites to the shape of a crack growth resistance curve measured with compact tension tests.

The constitutive model was validated including it in a set of finite element models of unnotched and open hole coupons with different multistacking sequences, under quasi-static tensile loading conditions, and comparing the results obtained by the simulation of the coupons against an experimental benchmark. A good correlation was achieved between the ultimate strength predicted with finite element analysis and the experimental data.