Linear Analysis of Single Delamination in Laminated Composite Plate using Layerwise Plate Theory

Composite materials have the important applications in the automotive and aircraft industry, shipbuilding, civil engineering etc. Plate damages usually appear at local (single layer) level. One of the most common forms of damage is delamination. For this rea-son, it is of interest to develop the layerwise plate theories, which are capable to describe the plate kinematics for each layer individually. This paper presents extended General Layer-wise Theory, with emphasis on the analysis of delamination. The response of cracked plate is given through Displacement Control analysis. Four-noded 2D FE is formulated. Layer-wise FE described in this paper allows independent interpolation of displacements through the plate thickness and in-plane. 2D crack propagation criteria are based on the LEFM. The usefulness of the proposed FE is verified by comparison with analytical solution