Determination of delamination-related material properties and sensitivities in a ply drop composite using a semi-numerical approach

authored by
Claudio Balzani, Basem Rajjoub, Andreas Schulz, Florian Sayer
Abstract

The aims of this paper are to investigate damage initiation and propagation in the vicinity of a ply drop focusing on delamination, to extract delamination-related material properties without conducting classical single and mixed mode fracture tests, and to analyze the sensitivities of delamination evolution with respect to these material properties. Quasi-static tensile tests were conducted on the coupon level for a UD composite with a ply drop. A combined numerical/experimental approach was followed to identify the material properties associated with delamination evolution. For that purpose, a finite element model was created using the cohesive zone model. The delamination-related properties were characterized by fitting the numerical model to the experiments by calibrating the cohesive zone parameters such that the global coupon response and the delamination extent for different load levels were in good agreement. Based on the identified parameter set, a sensitivity analysis was carried out to raise awareness of the influence of material properties on damage evolution. Damage around the ply drop was governed by mode II delamination. Several sensitivities were found to be non-linear with respect to a variation of input parameters. The methodology can be used in future work focusing on different ply drop configurations, and the results so far can serve as a database for benchmark simulations of delamination evolution in the vicinity of ply drops.

Organisation(s)
Institute of Wind Energy Systems
External Organisation(s)
Fraunhofer Institute for Wind Energy Systems (IWES)
Type
Conference article
Journal
Journal of Physics: Conference Series
Volume
2767
No. of pages
10
ISSN
1742-6588
Publication date
2024
Publication status
Published
Peer reviewed
Yes
ASJC Scopus subject areas
Building and Construction, Mechanical Engineering, Computational Mechanics, Mechanics of Materials, Aerospace Engineering
Research Area (based on ÖFOS 2012)
Fracture mechanics, Lightweight design, Computational engineering, Fracture mechanics, Lightweight design, Computational engineering
Sustainable Development Goals
SDG 7 - Affordable and Clean Energy
Electronic version(s)
https://doi.org/10.1088/1742-6596/2767/8/082008 (Access: Open)