Finite Element Guidelines for Simulation of Delamination Dominated Failures in Composite Materials Validated by Case Studies

The focus of this paper is on the computational modelling of progressive damage in composite structures of fibre reinforced laminae. A general review of modelling approaches to failure in the context of the finite element method is first presented, with an emphasis on models based on continuum damage mechanics. The way in which delamination and matrix splitting (that may or may not interact with fibre-tension damage) should be addressed in the framework of a commercial finite element code is considered next. An important feature of the analysis is it does not rely on customized user-subroutines but solely on the analysis capabilities of the general purpose software Abaqus, thus ensuring that the numerical results can be universally reproduced. It is shown that the finite element simulations can accurately represent the physical mechanisms controlling damage development and progression and reproduce a number of phenomena including delamination, laminate in-plane failure and behaviour at notches. The paper ends giving guidelines for the generalized modelling methodology using Abaqus without user-subroutines.