Delamination Buckling of Laminated Composite Structures with Curvature

Abstract

Delamination, which is one of the principal failure modes in composite laminates, plays a critical role in affecting the compressive behavior as it may cause localized buckling and the high interlaminar shear and normal stresses at the edges of the buckled regions which often lead to delamination growth. Since an early contribution by Kachanov[1], the delamination buckling problems have received substantial attention in last decade. Chai et al.[2] modelled delamination buckling and crack growth of laminated plates using a simple one-dimensional beam theory. The energy release rate, was computed by evaluating the total potential energy of the plate and differentiating the result with respect to the variable length of delamination which determines the stability characteristics of delamination growth. Whitcomb[3, 4] who is among the first to use a nonlinear finite element method for analyzing local post-buckling of an embeded delamination in laminated plate considered the influence of crack tip mode dependence and contact at delamination buckling in a three-dimensional finite element formulation.