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In early loading stage of composite laminates, longitudinal splitting in terms of matrix cracking usually initiates from notch tips and propagates in fiber directions. The extremely high stress concentrations at the notch tips could be drastically alleviated by the splitting. An efficient finite element model is created in this article to perform progressive failure analyses on notched composite laminates. To capture the true stress concentrations at notch tips, surface-based cohesive contacts instead of cohesive elements were introduced to model the splitting. The advantage of the surfaced-based cohesive contact over the traditional cohesive element is that it allows different mesh configurations for different plies. Predicted failure patterns and tensile strengths by the finite element model were compared with tested results from open literature.

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