Phase field modelling of progressive failure in composites combined with cohesive element with an explicit scheme

Abstract

A new complementary energy based split scheme which is different from existing energy split schemes is introduced for the first time to the phase field model, and the driving forces for longitudinal failure, matrix tensile failure and matrix shear failure are derived separately to account for different failure behaviors in a complete failure process in composites. Moreover, it is successfully managed to change the underlying damage initiation criterion of the proposed phase field model from the classic maximum stress criterion to the quadratic stress criterion, and the latter is of higher acceptance in the field of composites. The global equation is solved using explicit schemes and the present theory is implemented into ABAQUS through the users’ subroutine “VUEL” with a parallel setting. In addition to the examples given to verify the present method, a mega model of the open hole tension (OHT) specimen with up to 63,000,000 degrees of freedom is ran successfully to validate the computational capability of the proposed modelling framework. The modelling is completed within an acceptable time cost on a standard workstation by resorting to using 14 threads.