Micromechanics Based Failure Analysis of Composite Structural Laminates
Abstract
A micromechanics based multicontinuum theory and associated numerical algorithm was used to extract, virtually without a time penalty, the stress and strain fields for a composites' constituents during routine structural finite element analysis. Using this constituent information, a stress-based failure criterion was developed and used to construct a progressive failure algorithm for investigating the material failure strengths of composite structural laminates. The criterion is fully three-dimensional and requires a minimum number of experimentally derived constants. The failure prediction methodology attempts to maintain high computational efficiency, ease of input, and numerical accuracy. A finite element based analysis tool was developed and used to predict failure of a variety of laminates under uniaxial and biaxial loads. Two-dimensional failure surfaces for laminates under biaxial loads are generated and compared against those developed from using the Tsai-Wu failure criterion and from experimental data. The proposed failure criterion was shown to be superior to Tsai-Wu and in good agreement with experimentally determined failure loads.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Sep 01, 1999
- Accession Number
- ADA373962
Entities
People
- J. S. Mayes
Organizations
- Naval Surface Warfare Center Carderock Division