Modeling laminated composites with cohesive interfaces: a homogenization approach

A mechanical model is formulated for laminated shells with cohesive interfaces loaded dynamically. The model decomposes the shell into sub-shells joined by cohesive interfaces, which describe actual and potential fracture surfaces. A homogenization technique is applied to reduce the number of unknowns of the problem and make it independent of the numbers of sub-shells used to discretize the system. The accuracy of the approach in the presence of highly imperfect interfaces and delaminations is verified using an exact elasticity solution based on an extension of Pagano\u2019s (1969) model for multilayered plates with perfect interfaces