Delamination growth in long composite tubes under external pressure

Delamination growth is a phenomenon known to reduce the integrity of laminated composite structural elements and may lead to premature failures. In the present study, state of the art procedures of delamination growth analysis are overviewed. The energy release rate calculation is formulated for composite delaminated tubular cross sections and specialized to a finite element model for delamination buckling and growth analysis of long laminated composite tubes taking into account initial geometric imperfections, large deformations, contact between delamination faces and material degradation. It is, then, used to study the potential of delamination growth in a hybrid composite tube. Parametric studies are conducted to assess the effects of delamination length, location and geometric imperfection on growth.