Abstract
Composite materials have been used in structures for centuries. The available software enable us to model composite materials with specialized elements called layered elements, thus we can assign different properties and orientations for the various layers. The failure mechanism discussed in this paper is the interface delamination at the contact surface between two materials. This has motivated considerable research on the failure at the interface.
Interface delamination can be modelled by traditional fracture mechanics methods such as nodal release techniques. Alternatively, we can use techniques that will directly establish the fracture mechanism, by introducing a critical fracture energy that is also the energy required to break apart the interface surface, called cohesive zone model (CZM). In the second part of this paper will be discussed a more recent method to numerically model the delamination, namely discontinuous Galerkin model. This approach offer advantages over the more traditional approach that uses interface elements, as will be discussed in more detail.
KEYWORDS: debonding, interface delamination, composites, cohesive zone model, discontinuous Galerkin model.
[ Entire article (PDF) ],