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Mode-II interlaminar fracture of composite materials in the presence of randomly distributed defects

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Abstract

The focus of the present paper is on the mode-II (shear mode) interlaminar fracture of laminated composite materials with randomly distributed defects such as those generated due to the manufacturing process. The study is conducted using cohesive-zone Finite Element (FE) models of the Interlaminar Shear (ILS) and the End Notch Flexure (ENF) geometries with explicit inclusion of defects on a representative interlaminar plane. The effective interlaminar shear strength and the effective mode-II fracture energy are obtained by comparing the FE analysis with explicit defects against corresponding homogeneous models. Based on the parametric FE results it was found that the effective ILS strength and the mode-II fracture energy are significantly affected by the defects present on the critical interlaminar fracture plane, and when the defects are small, they follow a linear scaling with the defect area fraction. Simulations with various defect sizes reveal that for defects larger than the size of the delamination process-zone, the concept of the effective ILS strength and effective mode-II fracture energy is not valid, and defects must be represented explicitly in the models.

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Acknowledgements

The work reported in this paper was partially funded by the US Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) under contract #FA8650-13-C-5213 (Dr. George Jefferson, program monitor). The paper has been approved for public release by the AFRL (Case # AFRL-2021-0933) and Raytheon Technologies Research Center.

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  1. Raytheon Technologies Research Center, 411 Silver Lane, East Hartford, CT, 06108, USA

    Rajesh S. Kumar

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Correspondence to Rajesh S. Kumar.

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Kumar, R.S. Mode-II interlaminar fracture of composite materials in the presence of randomly distributed defects. Int J Fract 231, 201–221 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10704-021-00581-4

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