Mathematical modelling and simulation of delamination crack growth in glass fiber reinforced plastic (GFRP) composite laminates

Abstract

Delamination crack growth is a major source of failure in composite laminates under static and fatigue loading conditions. In the present study, damage mechanics based failure models for both static and fatigue loadings are evaluated via UMAT subroutine to study the dela- mination crack growth phenomenon in Glass Fiber Reinforced Plastic (GFRP) composite laminates. A static local damage model proposed by Allix and Ladev`eze is modified to an non-local damage model in order to simulate the crack growth behavior due to static loading. Next, the same classical damage model is modified to simulate fatigue delamination crack growth. The finite element analysis results obtained by the proposed models are successfully compared with the available experimental data on the delamination crack growth for GFRP composite laminates.