Damage-mechanics mesoscale modeling of composite laminates considering diffuse and discrete ply damages: Effects of ply thickness

Thin-ply composites are gaining significant attention owing to their high damage resistance and their ability to enhance design flexibility in a composite structure. Herein we proposed a damage mechanics model considering diffuse and discrete ply damages in thin-ply composite laminates for mesoscale simulation. To investigate the effects of ply thickness on damage evolution, loading and unloading tests were conducted using cross-ply, angleply, and quasi-isotropic laminates with several ply thicknesses. The damage evolution was quantitatively evaluated using continuum damage mechanics. The evolution laws of damage were formulated considering the ply thickness dependency. A damage simulation using the proposed model demonstrated that the retardation and suppression effects of thin-ply were captured by the proposed model. The simulation results also validated that the stiffness degradation and failure strength of laminates with three different ply thicknesses were predicted with good accuracy by considering both diffuse and discrete damages.

Automated summary

The study focuses on the damage evolution of thin-ply composites and proposes a mechanics model that considers diffuse and discrete interply damage. Loading and unloading tests were conducted to evaluate the influence of ply thickness on damage evolution, resulting in formulated damage evolution laws dependent on ply thickness. The proposed model successfully captures the retardation and suppression effects of thin-ply, and accurately predicts stiffness degradation and failure strength of laminates with different ply thicknesses.