Stress state characterization of delamination cracks in [0/90] symmetric laminates by BEM

The presence in a laminate of plies oriented at 90° with respect to the preferred direction of load generates almost immediately the appearance in these plies of cracks transverse to the load (parallel to the fibres in the lamina). These cracks reach the interface with the neighbouring ply, which in this paper will be considered oriented 0° with respect to the direction of the load. This may cause the bifurcation of the crack, which now appears propagating as a delamination crack between the two plies. The objective of this study is to characterize the stress state at the tip of both, the transverse crack in the 90° ply reaching the interface with the 0° ply, and the delamination crack for different lengths of the debonding. The analysis is performed by means of the Boundary Element Method allowing contact, without or with friction, to take place between the faces of the crack. The plies are considered as equivalent homogeneous bodies under a generalized plane strain state. The results are compared with those predicted by the open and contact models of Interfacial Fracture Mechanics. Accurate knowledge of the stress state at the neighbourhood of the tips of the cracks studied is necessary to generate failure criteria based on Fracture Mechanics parameters to predict the appearance and growth of the type of damage described.     

复合材料层板分层伴以横向裂纹扩展的三维有限元分析

本文采用三维有限元模型,对典型铺设的[0_2/±45_2/90_2]_s碳/环氧复合材料层板中分层伴以横向裂纹的产生和扩展导致的层间应力分布进行了分析。计算结果表明层间裂纹首先在90°层中部出现并开裂至相邻界面处而产生横向裂纹,横向裂纹的出现引起局部分层按三角形状扩展;并指出分层损伤过程是一个主导性的稳定扩展过程,这是导致刚度下降的主要因素。最后,数值计算结果与实验结果比较,两者是吻合的。     

A thermomechanical cohesive zone model for bridged delamination cracks

The coupled thermomechanical numerical analysis of composite laminates with bridged delamination cracks loaded by a temperature gradient is described. The numerical approach presented is based on the framework of a cohesive zone model. A traction-separation law is presented which accounts for breakdown of the micromechanisms responsible for load transfer across bridged delamination cracks. The load transfer behavior is coupled to heat conduction across the bridged delamination crack. The coupled crack-bridging model is implemented into a finite element framework as a thermomechanical cohesive zone model (CZM). The fundamental response of the thermomechanical CZM is described. Subsequently, bridged delamination cracks of fixed lengths are studied. Values of the crack tip energy release rate and of the crack heat flux are computed to characterize the loading of the structure. Specimen geometries are considered that lead to crack opening through bending deformation and buckling delamination. The influence of critical mechanical and thermal parameters of the bridging zone on the thermomechanical delamination behavior is discussed. Bridging fibers not only contribute to crack conductance, but by keeping the crack opening small they allow heat flux across the delamination crack to be sustained longer, and thereby contribute to reduced levels of thermal stresses. The micro-mechanism based cohesive zone model allows the assessment of the effectiveness of the individual mechanisms contributing to the thermomechanical crack bridging embedded into the structural analysis.     

Strain and failure analysis of graphite/epoxy plates with cracks

The objective of this investigation was to study the deformation and failure of uniaxially loaded graphite/epoxy plates with cracks and to determine the influence of notch size on failure. The specimens were quasi-isotropic laminates with cracks of various lengths. They were instrumented with strain gages, photoelastic coatings and moiré grids. Strains near the crack tip show two distinct points of rate change at strain levels of 0.002 and 0.006, the latter corresponding to the ultimate strain of the 90-deg plies. Failure near the crack tip takes the form of a damage zone consisting of ply subcracking along fibers, local delamination and fiber breakage. Failure occurs when this damage zone reaches some critical value. Measured maximum strains at failure exceeded twice the ultimate strain of the unnotched laminate. The average stress over a characteristic distance (5 mm) from the crack tip was used as a criterion to describe the influence of crack length on failure. Comparison of results with those from similar specimens with circular holes showed that strength was nearly independent of notch geometry in this case, i.e., specimens with holes and cracks of the same size had nearly the same strength.     

Cohesive modeling of transverse cracking in laminates under in-plane loading with a single layer of elements per ply

This study aims to bridge the gap between classical understanding of transverse cracking in cross-ply laminates and recent computational methods for the modeling of progressive laminate failure. Specifically, the study investigates under what conditions a finite element model with cohesive X-FEM cracks can reproduce the in situ effect for the ply strength. It is shown that it is possible to do so with a single element across the thickness of the ply, provided that the interface stiffness is properly selected. The optimal value for this interface stiffness is derived with an analytical shear lag model. It is also shown that, when the appropriate statistical variation of properties has been applied, models with a single element through the thickness of a ply can predict the density of transverse matrix cracks.     

Bridging effects in cracked laminates under thermal gradients

An approach for the coupled thermomechanical analysis of composite structures with bridged cracks is described. A crack bridging law is presented that accounts for breakdown of load as well as of heat transfer across the crack with increasing crack opening. The crack bridging law is implemented into a finite element framework as a cohesive zone model and is used for the investigation of unidirectional laminates under prescribed temperature gradients. The effects of crack bridging parameters on energy release rates, mode mixity and crack heat flux is discussed for boundary conditions which lead to crack opening either through bending deformation or delamination buckling.     

Energy release rate and phase angle of delamination in sandwich beams and symmetric adhesively bonded joints

Delamination in sandwich structures along the interface between the face sheet and the core, or along the adherend/adhesive interface in adhesively bonded joints, is one of the most common failure modes of this type of tri-layer structure. This delamination is usually modeled as an interface crack problem, for which the energy release rate and phase angle can be calculated using interface fracture mechanics solutions. Existing interface fracture mechanics solutions, however, ignore the effect of transverse shear deformation, which can be significant for short crack. In an effort to overcome this shortcoming, this study presents new analytical solutions for the energy release rate and for the phase angle of the interface crack in sandwich structures or adhesively bonded joints. Since the new solutions incorporate relative rotation at the tip of the delamination, transverse shear effects are taken into account in this study. Typical delaminated sandwich and adhesively bonded joint specimens are analyzed by using the new solutions, as well as by the existing solutions. The energy release rate predicted by the present model agrees very well with that predicted by FEA, and furthermore it is considerably more accurate relative to existing models. As the existing model neglects the transverse shear force, it underestimates the total energy release rate. A stress field analysis is also conducted in this study in order to clarify some misunderstandings in the literature on the determination of the phase angle of adhesively bonded joints using an interface stress-based method.     

The effects of shear on delamination in layered materials

The effect of transverse shear on delamination in layered, isotropic, linear-elastic materials has been determined. In contrast to the effects of an axial load or a bending moment on the energy-release rate for delamination, the effects of shear depend on the details of the deformation in the crack-tip region. It therefore does not appear to be possible to deduce rigorous expressions for the shear component of the energy-release rate based on steady-state energy arguments or on any type of modified beam theory. The expressions for the shear component of the energy-release rate presented in this work have been obtained using finite-element approaches. By combining these results with earlier expressions for the bending-moment and axial-force components of the energy-release rates, the framework for analyzing delamination in this type of geometry has been extended to the completely general case of any arbitrary loading. The relationship between the effects of shear and other fracture phenomena such as crack-tip rotations, elastic foundations and cohesive zones are discussed in the final sections of this paper.     

Numerical simulation of interlaminar damage propagation in CFRP cross-ply laminates under transverse loading

This paper proposes a numerical simulation of interlaminar damage propagation in FRP laminates under transverse loading, using the finite element method. First, we conducted drop-weight impact tests on CFRP cross-ply laminates. A ply crack was generated at the center of the lowermost ply, and then a butterfly-shaped interlaminar delamination was propagated at the 90/0 ply interface. Based on these experimental observations, we present a numerical simulation of interlaminar damage propagation, using a cohesive zone model to address the energy-based criterion for damage propagation. This simulation can address the interlaminar delamination with high accuracy by locating a fine mesh near the damage process zone, while maintaining computational efficiency with the use of automatic mesh generation. The simulated results of interlaminar delamination agreed well with the experiment results. Moreover, we demonstrated that the proposed method reduces the computational cost of the simulation.     

An improved atomistic simulation based mixed-mode cohesive zone law considering non-planar crack growth

A novel and improved atomistic simulation based cohesive zone law characterizing interfacial debonding is developed which explicitly accounts for the non-planarity of the crack propagation. Group of atoms in the simulation constituting cohesive zones which are used to obtain local stress and crack opening displacement data are determined dynamically during the non-planar crack growth as they cannot be determined apriori. The methodology is used to study the debonding of Σ5 (2 1 0)/[0 0 1] symmetric tilt grain boundary interface in a Cu bicrystal under several mixed mode loading conditions. Simulations show that such bicrystalline specimen exhibits three types of energy dissipative mechanisms – shear coupled GB migration (SCM) away from the crack-tips, change in spacial orientation of GB structural units rendering highly disordered grain boundary near the crack tips and brittle intergranular fracture. Which combination of these three deformation mechanism will be active influencing the degree of non-planarity of the crack propagation at various stages of loading depends on the loading mode-mixity. As the ratio of shear component of the loading parallel to the GB plane and normal to the tilt axis with respect to the normal loading increases (thereby increasing the mode-mixity), overall strain-to-failure also increases and SCM tends to become the dominant deformation mechanism. Through this framework, analytical functional forms and parameters describing cohesive laws for both normal and shear traction as a function of the mode-mixity of the loading and crack opening displacement are predicted.     

Monte Carlo simulation of complex cohesive fracture in random heterogeneous quasi-brittle materials

A numerical method is developed to simulate complex two-dimensional crack propagation in quasi-brittle materials considering random heterogeneous fracture properties. Potential cracks are represented by pre-inserted cohesive elements with tension and shear softening constitutive laws modelled by spatially-varying Weibull random fields. Monte Carlo simulations of a concrete specimen under uni-axial tension were carried out with extensive investigation of the effects of important numerical algorithms and material properties on numerical efficiency and stability, crack propagation processes and load-carrying capacities. It was found that the homogeneous model led to incorrect crack patterns and load–displacement curves with strong mesh-dependence, whereas the heterogeneous model predicted realistic, complicated fracture processes and load-carrying capacity of little mesh-dependence. Increasing the variance of the tensile strength random fields with increased heterogeneity led to reduction in the mean peak load and increase in the standard deviation. The developed method provides a simple but effective tool for assessment of structural reliability and calculation of characteristic material strength for structural design.     

Delamination mechanism maps for a strong elastic coating on an elastic–plastic substrate subjected to contact loading

Hard wear resistant coatings that are subjected to contact loading sometimes fail because the coating delaminates from the substrate. In this report, systematic finite element computations are used to model coating delamination under contact loading. The coating and substrate are idealized as elastic and elastic–plastic solids, respectively. The interface between coating and substrate is represented using a cohesive zone law, which can be characterized by its strength and fracture toughness. The system is loaded by an axisymmetric, frictionless spherical indenter. We observe two failure modes: shear cracks may nucleate just outside the contact area if the indentation depth or load exceeds a critical value; in addition, tensile cracks may nucleate at the center of the contact when the indenter is subsequently removed from the surface. Delamination mechanism maps are constructed which show the critical indentation depth and force required to initiate both shear and tensile cracks, as functions of relevant material properties. The fictitious viscosity technique for avoiding convergence problems in finite element simulations of crack nucleation and growth on cohesive interfaces allows us to explore a wider parametric space that a conventional cohesive model cannot handle. Numerical results have also been compared to analytical analyses of asymptotic limits using plate bending and membrane stretching theories, thus providing guidelines for interpreting the simulation results.     

Dynamic crack growth along a polymer composite-Homalite interface

Dynamic crack growth along the interface of a fiber-reinforced polymer composite-Homalite bimaterial subjected to impact shear loading is investigated experimentally and numerically. In the experiments, the polymer composite-Homalite specimens are impacted with a projectile causing shear dominated interfacial cracks to initiate and subsequently grow along the interface at speeds faster than the shear wave speed of Homalite. Crack growth is observed using dynamic photoelasticity in conjunction with high-speed photography. The calculations are carried out for a plane stress model of the experimental configuration and are based on a cohesive surface formulation that allows crack growth, when it occurs, to emerge as a natural outcome of the deformation history. The effect of impact velocity and loading rate is explored numerically. The experiments and calculations are consistent in identifying discrete crack speed regimes within which crack growth at sustained crack speeds is possible. We present the first conclusive experimental evidence of interfacial crack speeds faster than any characteristic elastic wave speed of the more compliant material. The occurrence of this crack speed was predicted numerically and the calculations were used to design the experiments. In addition, the first experimental observation of a mother-daughter crack mechanism allowing a subsonic crack to evolve into an intersonic crack is documented. The calculations exhibit all the crack growth regimes seen in the experiments and, in addition, predict a regime with a pulse-like traction distribution along the bond line.     

Delamination crack originating from transverse cracking in cross-ply composite laminates under extension

Based upon the Stroh formalism for anisotropic elastic materials and upon the method of eigenfunction expansion, the stress redistribution due to delamination cracks originating from transverse cracking is examined from [90/0], and [0/90], laminates under extension. The structure of the solution, in the form of a series expansion, is determined from the eigenvalue equation resulting from appropriate near-field conditions. To complete the solution, use is made of a boundary collocation technique in conjunction with the eigenfunction series that includes a large number of terms, enough to represent the elastic state throughout the appropriate domain concerned. The fracture mechanics parameters, such as stress intensity factors and energy release rates, are calculated and the major characteristics of stress distribution are discussed. The stability of delamination cracks is examined for varying ratios of ply thickness in terms of the energy release rate.     

The simulation of dynamic crack propagation using the cohesive segments method

The cohesive segments method is a finite element framework that allows for the simulation of the nucleation, growth and coalescence of multiple cracks in solids. In this framework, cracks are introduced as jumps in the displacement field by employing the partition of unity property of finite element shape functions. The magnitude of these jumps are governed by cohesive constitutive relations. In this paper, the cohesive segments method is extended for the simulation of fast crack propagation in brittle solids. The performance of the method is demonstrated in several examples involving crack growth in linear elastic solids under plane stress conditions: tensile loading of a block; shear loading of a block and crack growth along and near a bi-material interface.     

基于裂纹附加模态Timoshenko梁的裂纹损伤识别

将梁中横向裂纹等效为无质量扭转弹簧，并忽略其对梁剪切变形的影响，得到的具有任意裂纹数目Timoshenko 梁自振模态的统一显示解析表达式．将裂纹梁的自振模态分为基本模态和裂纹附加模态，利用最小二乘拟合，建立了利用裂纹附加模态函数的梁裂纹损伤识别方法．通过数值模拟开展了简支单裂纹梁以及悬臂和固支双裂纹梁等的裂纹损伤识别，考察了测量误差对损伤识别的影响，数值结果表明本文所提出的裂纹损伤识别方法对裂纹位置的识别精度高于对裂纹损伤程度的识别精度；随着测量误差的增加，裂纹位置及裂纹损伤程度的识别误差增加，但仍在可接受的范围内，故该裂纹损伤识别方法在实际工程中具有一定的应用价值．     

SHEAR BEAM MODEL FOR INTERFACE FAILURE UNDER ANTIPLANE SHEAR (Ⅰ)—FUNDAMENTAL BEHAVIOR

The propagation of interlayer cracks and the resulting failure of the interface is a typical mode occurring in rock engineering and masonry structure. On the basis of the theory of elasto~plasticity and fracture mechanics, the shear beam model for the solution of interface failure was presented. The concept of `cohesive crack’ was adopted to describe the constitutive behavior of the cohesive interfacial layer. Related fundamental equations such as equilibrium equation, constitutive equations were presented. The behavior of a double shear beam bonded through cohesive layer was analytically calculated. The stable propagation of interface crack and process zone was investigated.     

复合材料结构的内部分层及其扩展

本文用接触观点分析了复合材料壳体结构的内部分层问题，建立了求解摩擦接触问题的有限元迭代格式，并采用释放率判据分析分层裂纹的扩展。分层裂纹前缘采用轴对称奇异单元，并了结构的大变形特性。计算表明，层间裂纹呈Ⅱ型扩展趋势。本文同时还分析了层间摩擦系数的影响，并指出分层将导致壳体结构承载能力显著下降。     

Mechanics and fracture of crack tip deformable bi-material interface

Novel interface deformable bi-layer beam theory is developed to account for local effects at crack tip of bi-material interface by modeling a bi-layer composite beam as two separate shear deformable sub-layers with consideration of crack tip deformation. Unlike the sub-layer model in the literature in which the crack tip deformations under the interface peel and shear stresses are ignored and thus a “rigid” joint is used, the present study introduces two interface compliances to account for the effect of interface stresses on the crack tip deformation which is referred to as the elastic foundation effect; thus a flexible condition along the interface is considered. Closed-form solutions of resultant forces, deformations, and interface stresses are obtained for each sub-layer in the bi-layer beam, of which the local effects at the crack tip are demonstrated. In this study, an elastic deformable crack tip model is presented for the first time which can improve the split beam solution. The present model is in excellent agreements with analytical 2-D continuum solutions and finite element analyses. The resulting crack tip rotation is then used to calculate the energy release rate (ERR) and stress intensity factor (SIF) of interface fracture in bi-layer materials. Explicit closed-form solutions for ERR and SIF are obtained for which both the transverse shear and crack tip deformation effects are accounted. Compared to the full continuum elasticity analysis, such as finite element analysis, the present solutions are much explicit, more applicable, while comparable in accuracy. Further, the concept of deformable crack tip model can be applied to other bi-layer beam analyses (e.g., delamination buckling and vibration, etc.).