Paper number 208

INEXPENSIVE DAMAGE PROPAGATION ANALYSIS FOR COMPOSITE LAMINATES BY USING FEM WITH PLANE ELEMENTS

Yoshinobu Shimamura¹, Akira Todoroki¹, Hideo Kobayashi¹ and Haruo Nakamura¹

1 Department of Mechano-Aerospace Engineering, Tokyo Institute of Technology
2-12-1 O-okayama, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 152-8552, Japan

Summary

Recently, applications of integrated composite structures have been attempted to many structures of vehicles. To improve the cost performance and reliability, it is necessary to judge the structural integrity of the composite structures with damage. For the judgement, we have developed a simple and inexpensive simulation method using finite element method with two-dimensional plane stress elements. The simulation method includes both intralaminar and interlaminar fracture mechanisms. Analytical damage propagation and stiffness degradation of CF/epoxy laminate with an open hole were compared with experimental results. As a result, it is shown that the proposed simulation method can roughly predict the damage propagation and stiffness degradation of composite laminates.

Keywords

damage, finite element method, delamination, simulation.