Progressive Failure Analysis of Laminated Composite Plates by Finite Element Method

Abstract

The progressive failure analysis of laminated composite plates under transverse static loading has been carried out in linear and elastic range. The laminated composite plate has been modeled using eight noded isoparametric plate bending elements. The first order shear deformation theory has been applied and a shear correction factor is used. After the failure of the weakest ply, the stiffness is reduced by either fiber failure or matrix failure. The stiffness of failed lamina has been totally discarded and other existing laminae are considered to remain unchanged after the weakest ply failure. The strength of the laminate at the same point is evaluated again to see if the laminate can carry additional load. This ply-by-ply analysis progresses until the ultimate strength of the laminate is reached. The results in terms of first-ply failure load obtained in the present investigation have been compared with those available in published literature. A parametric study has been done on the progressive failure analysis.

An Initial and Progressive Failure Analysis for Cryogenic Composite Fuel Tank Design

“…Most progressive analyses check ply-cracking, update modulus reduction, and use iterative decision making to cracking at applied load increments [21][22][23][24][25][26][27]. The present study suggests a new progressive failure analysis by changing through-the-thickness temperatures associated with fuel leakage as well as equivalent laminate stiffness matrix, whenever damaged plies are detected.…”

Predicting the Coefficient of Thermal Expansion of Pultruded Composites with a Natural-Fiber Reinforcement

“…It is an essential procedure in various engineering disciplines related to designing or modelling [14]. The ANSYS software is one of FEA tool that is already in use and delivers rather accurate results [7,8]. In this study, the coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) was determined by FEA using the representative unit-cell approach.…”

“…Predicting the longitudinal and transverse CTE for various materials, such as glass and carbon fibers, have been reported by several authors [1,[3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10]. With regard to the finite-element analysis (FEA), various numerical computational analyses tools, including ANSYS [1] and ABAQUS [3,4,11], were used to predict the CTE.…”

Damage prediction in notched fiber-reinforced composite laminates

“…Once damage is predicted in a composite material according to a chosen failure criterion, the elastic moduli of the material will be reduced based on the damage modes. The MPDM can be applied either to whole plies [7,8] (referred to as ply discount method) or to finite elements. [9,10] So far, most of the progressive failure analyses of notched composite laminates are still based on the material homogenization assumption, which treat composite laminas as homogenized anisotropic bodies.…”