Adaptive modelling of delamination initiation and propagation using an equivalent single‐layer shell approach

A major challenge for crash failure analysis of laminated composites is to find a modelling approach, which is both sufficiently accurate, for example, able to capture delaminations, and computationally efficient to allow full‐scale vehicle crash simulations. Addressing this challenge, we propose a methodology based on an equivalent single‐layer shell formulation which is adaptively through‐the‐thickness refined to capture initiating and propagating delaminations. To be specific, single shell elements through the laminate thickness are locally and adaptively enriched using the extended finite element method such that delaminations can be explicitly modelled without having to be represented by separate elements. Furthermore, the shell formulation is combined with a stress recovery technique which increases the accuracy of predicting delamination initiations. The paper focuses on the parameters associated with identifying, introducing and extending the enrichment areas; especially on the impact of these parameters on the resulting structural deformation behaviour. We conclude that the delamination enrichment must be large enough to allow the fracture process to be accurately resolved, and we propose a suitable approach to achieve this. The proposed methodology for adaptive delamination modelling shows potential for being computationally efficient, and thereby, it has the potential to enable efficient and accurate full vehicle crash simulations of laminated composites. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Buckling analysis for delaminated composites using plate bending elements based on higher‐order zig‐zag theory

A finite element based on the efficient higher‐order zig‐zag theory with multiple delaminations is developed. The bending part of the formulation is constructed from the concept of DKQ element. Unlike conventional elements, a developed element has its reference in the bottom surface which simplifies zig‐zag terms on formulation. Exact patch solutions are developed on elements which have the bottom reference system. The present element passes proper bending patch tests in the arbitrary mesh configurations in isotropic materials. Zig‐zag formulation is adopted to model laminated plates with multiple delaminations. To assess the accuracy and efficiency of the present element based on higher‐order zig‐zag theory with multiple delaminations, the linear buckling problem of laminated plates with multiple delaminations has been analysed. The results have been compared with three‐dimensional elasticity solutions. The present element works as an efficient tool for analysing the behaviour of the laminated composites with multiple delaminations. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

旋转周期复合材料层合结构的有限元屈曲分析

针对空间结构中常见的复合材料层合壳体结构发展了一种多层相对自由度层合壳元。这种实体型壳元既可以用较粗的网格很好地模拟层合壳, 又易与三维实体单元相连接, 使变厚度、带有补强的复合材料层合壳体等复杂结构得以正确建模。同时运用旋转周期有限元技术对大规模的空间复合材料层合结构成功实施了屈曲分析。数值算例验证了本文计算策略的有效性。      

Inter-laminar stresses in a laminated shallow shell panel

The evaluation of inter-laminar shear stresses in laminated shells using 2D finite element models involves cumbersome post-processing techniques. In this paper, a simple and efficient method has been proposed for accurate evaluation of transverse shear stresses in laminated composite shells by using a displacement-based C⁰ FE model derived from higher-order shear deformation theory (HSDT) and a least square error (LSE) method. In order to include the effect of three curvature terms in the strain components of composite shells, Sander’s approximations are followed. In this model, the first derivatives of transverse displacement have been treated as independent variables to overcome the problem of C¹ continuity in the FE implementation associated with the present shell theory (HSDT). The LSE method is applied at the post-processing stage, after in-plane stresses are calculated by using the present FE model based on HSDT. Thus, the proposed method is quite simple compared to the usual method of integrating the 3D equilibrium equations for the calculation of transverse stresses in laminated composite shells. The accuracy of the method is demonstrated in the numerical examples by comparison of the present results with those obtained from different models based on HSDT, exact analytical and 3D elasticity solutions.     

A new FE model based on higher order zigzag theory for the analysis of laminated sandwich beam with soft core

A new finite element (FE) model has been developed based on higher order zigzag theory (HOZT) for the static analysis of laminated sandwich beam with soft core. In this theory, the in-plane displacement variation is considered to be cubic for both the face sheets and the core. The transverse displacement is assumed to vary quadratically within the core while it remains constant in the faces beyond the core. The proposed model satisfies the condition of transverse shear stress continuity at the layer interfaces and the zero transverse shear stress condition at the top and bottom of the beam. The nodal field variables are chosen in an efficient manner to overcome the problem of continuity requirement of the derivatives of transverse displacements. A C₀ quadratic beam finite element is implemented to model the HOZT for the present analysis. Numerical examples covering different features of laminated composite and sandwich beams are presented to illustrate the accuracy of the present model. Many new results are also presented which should be useful for future research.     

Sandwich shell finite element for dynamic explicit analysis

The contribution of this paper consists of new development of transverse shear stresses through the thickness and finding an expression for the critical time step for explicit time integration of layered shells. This work presents the finite element (FE) formulation and implementation of a higher‐order shear deformable shell element for dynamic explicit analysis of composite and sandwich shells. The formulation is developed using a displacement‐based third‐order shear deformation shell theory. Using the differential equilibrium equations and the interlayer requirements, special treatment is developed for the transverse shear, resulting in a continuous, piecewise quartic distribution of the transverse shear stresses through the shell thickness. Expressions are developed for the critical time step of the explicit time integration for orthotropic homogeneous and layered shells based on the developed third‐order formulation. To assess the performance of the present shell element, it is implemented in the general non‐linear explicit dynamic FE code DYNA3D. Several problems are solved and results are presented and compared to other theoretical and numerical results. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A co-rotational 8-node assumed strain shell element for postbuckling analysis of laminated composite plates and shells

 The formulation of a nonlinear composite shell element is presented for the solution of stability problems of composite plates and shells. The formulation of the geometrical stiffness presented here is exactly defined on the midsurface and is efficient for analyzing stability problems of thin and thick laminated plates and shells by incorporating bending moment and transverse shear resultant forces. The composite element is free of both membrane and shear locking behaviour by using the assumed natural strain method such that the element performs very well as thin shells. The transverse shear stiffness is defined by an equilibrium approach instead of using the shear correction factor. The proposed formulation is computationally efficient and the test results showed good agreement. In addition the effect of the viscoelastic material is investigated on the postbuckling behaviour of laminated composite shells. Received: 6 February 2002 / Accecpted: 6 January 2003 ID=" Present address: School of Civil Engineering, Asian Institute of Technology     

Failure analysis of multiple delaminated composite plates due to bending and impact

The present work aims at the first ply failure analysis of laminated composite plates with arbitrarily located multiple delaminations subjected to transverse static load as well as impact. The theoretical formulation is based on a simple multiple delamination model. Conventional first order shear deformation is assumed using eight-noded isoparametric quadratic elements to develop the finite element analysis procedure. Composite plates are assumed to contain both single and multiple delaminations. For the case of impact, Newmark time integration algorithm is employed for solving the time dependent multiple equations of the plate and the impactor. Tsai-Wu failure criterion is used to check for failure of the laminate for both the cases. To investigate the first ply failure, parametric studies are made for different cases by varying the size and number of delaminations as well as the stacking sequences and boundary conditions.     

Fracture analysis of composite co‐cured structural joints using decohesion elements

Delamination is one of the predominant forms of failure in laminated composite structures, especially when there is no reinforcement in the thickness direction. To develop composite structures that are more damage tolerant, it is necessary to understand how delamination develops, and how it can affect the residual performance. A number of factors such as residual thermal stresses, matrix‐curing shrinkage and manufacturing defects affect how damage will grow in a composite structure. It is important to develop computationally efficient analysis methods that can account for all such factors. The objective of the current work is to apply a newly developed decohesion element to investigate the debond strength of skin‐stiffener composite specimens. The process of initiation of delaminations and the propagation of delamination fronts is investigated. The numerical predictions are compared with published experimental results.     

Modal validation of sandwich shell finite elements based on a p‐order shear deformation theory including zigzag terms

This paper describes a set of improved C⁰‐compatible composite shell finite elements for evaluating the global dynamic response (natural frequencies and mode shapes) of sandwich structures. Combining a through‐the‐thickness displacement approximation of variable high order with a first‐order zigzag function, the proposed finite elements are suited for modelling sandwich plates and doubly curved shells with a non‐uniform thickness and are more accurate than conventional models based on the first‐ and third‐order shear deformation theories, especially in sandwich panels with highly heterogeneous properties. The new finite element model is then validated by a comparison with the standard shell and 3D solid models. From these investigations, it can be concluded that adding a zigzag function even to high‐order polynomial approximations of the through‐the‐thickness displacement is a useful tool for refining the modelling of sandwich structures. In addition, the proposed formulation is sufficiently versatile to represent with the same level of accuracy the behaviour of thin‐to‐thick laminated shells as well as of strongly heterogeneous sandwich structures. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Structural design of single lap joints with delaminated FRP composite adherends

This paper deals with the structural design of single lap joints (SLJs) with delaminated adherends using fracture mechanics principles. The interlaminar stresses and Strain Energy Release Rate (SERR) are considered as damage characterizing parameters used for designing the SLJ when delamination damages are pre-embedded in both the adherends at similar positions. Three dimensional geometrically non-linear finite element analyses (FEAs) of SLJ with delaminated adherends have been performed to determine the interlaminar and SERR values along the delamination fronts by simulating the simultaneous interaction delamination damages when pre-embedded at similar positions in both the adherends. SERR values are evaluated using Modified Crack Closure Technique (MCCI) which is based on energy principle. The delaminations are assumed to be of linear front, and have been considered to be embedded in both the laminated FRP composite adherends beneath the surface ply of the adhesively bonded SLJ. The delamination damages are presumed either to pre-exist or get evolved at the interlaminar locations. Such delaminations have been modelled using the sublaminate technique. The critical issues of modelling pre-embedded delamination damages are discussed in detail. The numerical results presented in this paper are based on the validated FE model compared with the available literature. Based on the present analyses, the structural design recommendations have been made for the SLJ when pre-embedded delamination damages are present in both the adherends. It is observed from the stress based design that the delamination damage when present in the bottom adherend is more detrimental for failure of SLJ compared to that for the case when it is present in the top adherend. Also, SERR based design reveals that the opening mode predominantly governs the propagation of delamination damage for all positions of the pre-embedded delaminations in both the adherends of the SLJ.     

Delamination buckling and postbuckling in composite cylindrical shells under combined axial compression and external pressure

A series of finite element analyses on the delaminated composite cylindrical shells subject to combined axial compression and pressure are carried out varying the delamination thickness and length, material properties and stacking sequence. Based on the FE results, the characteristics of the buckling and postbuckling behaviour of delaminated composite cylindrical shells are investigated. The combined double-layer and single-layer of shell elements are employed which in comparison with the three-dimensional finite elements requires less computing time and space for the same level of accuracy. The effect of contact in the buckling mode has been considered, by employing contact elements between the delaminated layers. The interactive buckling curves and postbuckling response of delaminated cylindrical shells have been obtained. In the analysis of post-buckled delaminations, a study using the virtual crack closure technique has been performed to find the distribution of the local strain energy release rate along the delamination front. The results are compared with the previous results obtained by the author on the buckling and postbuckling of delaminated composite cylindrical shells under the axial compression and external pressure, applied individually.     

Finite rotation exact geometry solid-shell element for laminated composite structures through extended SaS formulation and 3D analytical integration

A nonlinear exact geometry hybrid-mixed four-node solid-shell element using the sampling surfaces (SaS) formulation is developed for the analysis of the second Piola-Kirchhoff stress that extends the authors' finite element (Int J Numer Methods Eng. 2019;117:498-522) to laminated composite shells. The SaS formulation is based on choosing inside the layers the arbitrary number of SaS parallel to the middle surface and located at Chebyshev polynomial nodes in order to introduce the displacements of these surfaces as basic shell unknowns. The external surfaces and interfaces are also included into a set of SaS. The proposed hybrid-mixed solid-shell element is based on the Hu-Washizu variational principle and is completely free of shear and membrane locking. The tangent stiffness matrix is evaluated by efficient three-dimensional (3D) analytical integration. As a result, the developed exact geometry solid-shell element exhibits a superior performance in the case of coarse meshes and allows the use of load increments, which are much larger than possible with existing displacement-based solid-shell elements. It could be useful for the 3D stress analysis of thick and thin doubly curved laminated composite shells because the SaS formulation gives the possibility to obtain the 3D solutions with a prescribed accuracy.     

Buckling and postbuckling behavior of delaminated sandwich beams

An investigation was performed to study the buckling and postbuckling behavior of sandwich beams containing lengthwise and depthwise through-the-width delaminations. An analytical beam model was developed to predict the buckling load of the beam and to describe its postbuckling response for arbitrarily situated delaminations and various combinations of boundary conditions. Griffith's energy release rate model was employed to predict the stability of delamination propagation under external loading and to determine the direction of delamination growth.

Parametric studies over a wide range of beam geometries, damage sizes and locations, composite facings and beam boundary conditions were carried out to study their effects on the overall behavior of the sandwich structure, as well as its damage tolerance. The results demonstrated that a sandwich construction is very ‘sensitive’ to the presence of delaminations situated at the core-faceplate interface. Premature buckling failure occurs at external loads which are significantly lower than the buckling load for a ‘perfect’ sandwich beam; in ‘imperfect’ beams with composite faceplates, the layup sequence affects significantly the load-carrying capacity of the beam; varying either the boundary conditions in a sandwich beam or the lengthwise location of a delamination has a small effect on the postbuckling behavior of the beam. Delaminations located within composite faceplates have less pronounced influence, and as the defect is moved outwards the limit load may reach the buckling load corresponding to that of the ‘perfect’ beam.

The proposed model is capable of analyzing the postbuckling behavior of both sandwich and composite laminated beams for arbitrary locations of the delamination, and various combinations of boundary conditions.     

Finite element buckling analysis of rotationally periodic laminated composite shells

A finite element (FE) buckling analysis of rotationally periodic laminated composite shells is performed in this paper. Because the buckling mode of such structures is characterized as rotationally periodic, a corresponding FE buckling analysis scheme is proposed to reduce the computational expenses. Moreover, a new kind of relative degrees‐of‐freedom element is developed, which can be connected to other solid elements with ease and can yield satisfactory results with a relatively coarse FE mesh. Numerical results of two laminated cylindrical shells subjected to lateral pressure are compared with theoretical ones. The good agreement of them shows the validity of this new computational strategy. Finally, a practical structure is analysed to demonstrate the advantage of this method. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Geometrically non-linear analysis of symmetrically laminated composite and sandwich shells with a higher-order theory and C finite elements

A C⁰ continuous displacement based finite element formulation of a higher order theory for linear and geometrically non-linear analysis which accounts for large displacements in the sense of von Karman of symmetrically laminated composite and sandwich shells under transverse loads is presented. The displacement model accounts for non-linear and constant variation of tangential and transverse displacement components, respectively, through the shell thickness. The assumed displacement model climinates the use of shear correction coefficients. The discrete element chosen is a nine-node quadrilateral element with nine degress of freedom per node. The accuracy of the present formulation is then established by comparing the present results with the available analytical. closed-form two-dimensional solutions, three-dimensional elasticity solutions and other finite element solutions. Some new results are generated for future comparisons to and evaluations of sandwich shells.     

基于三维有限元法的层合圆柱壳应力分析

针对空间结构中常见的蜂窝夹芯壳体提出了一种32节点相对自由度三层壳元,以及一种精确计算层间应力的后处理方案。这种32节点壳元可以更好地反映结构固有的特性,易与三维实体单元相连接,使变厚度、带有补强的蜂窝夹芯复合材料壳体等复杂结构问题得以正确建模。本文作者的后处理方案克服了位移有限元层间应力不连续的缺点,保证了应力精确满足边界条件。综合运用以上方法的典型算例表明:计算精度是令人满意的。     

An extended Layerwise method for composite laminated beams with multiple delaminations and matrix cracks

For the delamination and matrix crack prediction of composite laminated structures, the methods based on the damage mechanics and fracture mechanics are most commonly used. However, there are very few methods that can accurately simulate the delaminations together with matrix cracks, although the in‐plane matrix cracks always exist alongside the delaminations under impact loading. In this work, an extended layerwise method is developed to model the composite laminated beam with multiple delaminations and matrix cracks. In the displacement field, the nodes in the thickness direction are located at the middle surface of each single layer, the top surface and the bottom surface of the composite beams. The displacement field contains the linear Lagrange interpolation functions, the one‐dimensional weak discontinuous function and strong discontinuous function. The strong and weak discontinuous function are applied to model the displacement discontinuity induced by delaminations and the strain discontinuity induced by the interface between the layers, respectively. Because the nodes in the thickness direction are located at the middle surface of each single layer, the extended layerwise method can be conveniently employed to deal with the in‐plane matrix cracks combined with the extend FEM. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Modelling delaminations in postbuckling stiffened composite shear panels

 A method has been developed to predict the effect of delaminations in a postbuckling stiffened structure manufactured from laminated composite materials. The emphasis of the technique, driven by aircraft certification requirements, was towards establishing whether delamination growth would initiate under given loading conditions. A geometric nonlinear finite element analysis was used to calculate the strain energy release rate around the circumference of a circular delamination using the virtual crack closure technique. In order to deal with the complex structural response in a computationally efficient manner, the structure was modelled using plate elements with two layers of plate elements used in the delaminated region. The effect of delamination size on the strength of postbuckling panels was shown to be a complex phenomenon in which trends were difficult to predict. Large delaminations could significantly affect the global and sub-laminate buckling modes and therefore be less critical than smaller delaminations. It was concluded that the method could accurately predict the load and location at which delamination growth would initiate, given suitable critical strain energy release rate data. Received 16 February 2000     

Structural analysis of composite laminates using a mixed hybrid shell element

The structural analysis of thin composite structures requires robust and effective shell elements. In this paper the variational formulation is based on a Hu–Washizu functional with independent displacements, stress resultants and shell strains. For the independent shell strains an additional interpolation part is introduced. This yields an improved convergence behaviour especially for laminated shells with coupled membrane and bending stiffness. The developed mixed hybrid shell element possesses the correct rank and fulfills the in–plane and bending patch test. The formulation is tested by several nonlinear examples including bifurcation and post–buckling response. The essential feature of the new element is the robustness in nonlinear computations with large rigid body motions. It allows very large load steps in comparison to standard displacement models.