Simulation & validation of delamination growth in CFRP specimens under mixed mode loading using cohesive elements

This paper discusses in detail the use of cohesive interface elements for simulation of delamination growth in composites. The work addresses the complexities in the convergence of numerical simulations that arise due to cohesive elements. A systematic way to obtain the best values for cohesive element parameters while finding a balance between accuracy of the results, computation time and numerical stability is presented. Parametric studies on cohesive elements are conducted through simulation of the standard Double cantilever beam (DCB) test in Abaqus/standard and numerical results are validated with test data. The optimized parameters are used to simulate the end-notched flexure (ENF) test and mixed-mode bending (MMB) tests. Numerical results for the above tests are in good agreement with the test data, thereby validating our approach