Paper number 796

ADAPTED PROGRESSIVE FAILURE CRITERION FOR MULTI-DIRECTIONAL GRP-LAMINATES

G.M. Sluimer

Delft University of Technology, Department of Civil Engineering,
P.O. Box 5048, NL-2600 GA, Delft, The Netherlands

Summary The ability to accurately predict the stiffness and strength of laminates composed of glass-fibre reinforced polyester (GRP) is necessary for a sound design when laminates are used in structural applications.
An easily accessible computational tool has been described that is able to go beyond the level of first-ply failure, dealing with the phenomenon of progressive failure.
Our approach is to use the Tsai-Wu criterion to find the critical stress combination in a multi-layer laminate. This failure criterion will be applied to the actual material constitution, taking into account the degraded material properties as for stiffness and strength. The computed stresses are used to determine the mode of failure. The selective criterion that we will use resembles Puck's criterion, extended with a selective parameter.
The computational results have been compared with biaxial tests on flat cross-shaped specimens provided with a small circular hole in the centre. This comparison shows an excellent agreement between computational and experimental results.
Keywords glass-fibre reinforced polyester, biaxial testing, progressive failure.

Theme : Mechanical and Physical Properties ; Fracture Mechanics and Failure

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