Progressive damage response and crack growth direction for multiple through cracks of laminated composite finite plate

Abstract

The present work predicts the numerical progressive failure response and crack growth of finite plate laminated composites with cutout and multiple cracks under in-plane tensile and copressive loads. The ply to ply failure response of the finite plate is predicted using ABAQUS user define field variables subroutine approach, whereas the extended finite element method is used for examination of crack growth direction for multiple through crack of laminated composite finite plate. The subroutine predicted results are compared and validated with published experimental results and extended finite element method results. The effect of changing mesh size, fibre orientation, crack length, crack inclination angle on failure load, progressive stress intensity factor and damage toughness of various crack types is presented and discussed.