Effect of cohesive zone length on the delamination growth of the composite laminates under cyclic loading

Abstract

In this paper, the cohesive zone model based on dissipative energy developed by Turon is improved by modifying the cohesive zone length. The modified model is implemented in Abaqus software using the USDFLD subroutine. In addition to the material effect, this cohesive zone length model also considers the impact of structural geometry to estimate cohesive zone length. A novel formulation in the mixed-mode condition is proposed to estimate cohesive zone length. New relation is a function of cohesive zone length of mode I & II and mode ratio. A more accurate prediction of the crack growth rate was obtained using the new model compared with the experimental data taken from the literature.