An elastic interface model for delamination buckling in laminated plates

This paper presents a one-dimensional model of a composite laminated plate containing a delamination and subject to uniaxial compression, where the delaminated plate is thought of as two sublaminates partly connected by an elastic interface. This is a continuous distribution of normal and tangential linear elastic springs, aiming to model the behavior of the thin layer of resin joining the laminae together in a real laminate. The nonlinear equilibrium equations, derived from von Kármán’s plate theory, are solved explicitly and the normal and tangential interlaminar stresses are determined. The virtual crack closure technique is used to deduce the expressions of the mode-I and mode-II energy release rates, needed for applying a mixed-mode crack-growth criterion