Progressive failure analysis of laminated composite plates

Abstract

Failure of laminated composite plates has been a crucial issue that numerous researches have been conducted on the matter. Several modes of failure of laminated composites include fibre failure in tension, matrix failure in tension, fibre failure in compression, matrix failure in compression and delamination. This paper analyses failures of the composites to determine the first ply failure load (FPL) and last ply failure load (LPL) using the progressive failure approach that combines the effect of several modes of failure. Finite element method (FEM) was used via the commercial software of ANSYS APDL where the laminated composite plates were first modelled. Validation of the analysis was firstly conducted through a simple stress and deflection analysis. Progressive analysis was then conducted as the composite is loaded with an incremental combined tensile and transverse loading. The Tsai-Wu failure and the maximum stress criteria have been used to detect the FPL. With the failure occurred in an element, the degradation of that element mechanical properties was applied. As the load was further increased, more elements will fail and be degraded until the LPL was reached. A parametric study was conducted on the effect of varying angles of orientation of the composite. The results showed that the FPL and the LPL of the composites due to the Tsai-Wu criterion and the maximum stress criterion were in good agreement. The progressive failure behaviour of laminated composite plates subjected to uniaxial load and combined uniaxial load and transverse load was successfully established.