Finite Element Delamination Study of a Notched Composite Plate Under Flexural Loads

The delamination process in notched composite plates under flexural loading has been investigated using finite element analysis. Cohesive elements implemented in the commercial finite element package ABAQUS have been used in the region around the drilled-hole, and positioned between layers where delamination was observed during experiments presented in an accompanying paper. The delamination initiation and subsequent propagation was studied between the layers at the tension side separately and simultaneously. For all FE models, the load displacement curve was in good agreement with the one from experiments. However, the amount of damage reported from the fractography study was more extensive than that predicted by the models. Finally, it was shown that the models with only one cohesive layer show significantly different results to that of the model with four cohesive layers in terms of size of the degradation area