A sub-laminate based higher-order model for bending of laminated beams containing multiple delaminations

Abstract

The paper presents a new sub-laminate based higher-order laminated model (HOLM) for modelling the bending response of laminated composite and sandwich beams with and without delaminations of any configuration. The variation of in-plane and transverse displacement fields through the thickness of a sub-laminate is assumed cubic and quadratic, respectively. Such variation involves specifying displacement parameters at the top and bottom surfaces of sub-laminates that provide significant benefit in conveniently modelling perfect and delaminated multilayered beams with any desired level of accuracy. The option exists to therefore trade-off between prediction and computational efficiency by adapting a suitable sub-laminate modelling scheme. A C0 continuous beam element with quadratic in-plane variation of displacements is developed for implementation of the proposed laminate model. The versatility and accuracy of the model is demonstrated by via a number of numerical examples of composite and sandwich beams, covering a range of variables such as boundary conditions, loading, and delamination configuration. A number of the newly developed results reported in this paper will serve as baseline data for delaminated structures.