Simulation of skin-stiffener debonding in stiffened carbon/epoxy panels

Aircraft fuselage structures are typically composed of a curved skin connected to longitudinal stiffeners. They are nowadays made of carbon/epoxy laminates. Skin-stiffener debonding can lead to a significant reduction of their compressive loadcarrying capacity in the postbuckling range of response. This work examines this effect in the framework of the finite element method. A zero-thickness interface element written in terms of cohesive tractions and relative displacements is derived which is inserted between skin and stiffener. A special cohesive law already presented in [1, 2] describes the softening behavior of the interface while taking into account contact conditions. A numerical example shows the applicability of the model. (© 2008 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)