Prediction of through the width delamination growth in post-buckled laminates under fatigue loading using de-cohesive law

Initiation and growth of delamination is a great concern of designers of composite structures. Interface elements with de-cohesive constitutive law in the content of continuum damage mechanics can be used to predict initiation and growth of delamination in single and mixed mode conditions. In this paper, an interface element based on the cohesive zone method has been developed to simulate delaminatoin growth of post-buckled laminate under fatigue loading. The model was programmed as the user element and user material by the "User Programmable Features" in ANSYS finite element software. The interface element is a three-dimensional 20 node brick with small thickness. Because of mixed-mode condition of stress field at the delamination-front of post-buckled laminates, a mixed-mode bilinear constitutive law has been used as user material in this model. The constitutive law of interface element has been verified by modelling of a single element. A composite laminate with initial delamination under quasi-static compressive Loading available from literature has been remodeled with the present approach. Moreover, it will be shown that, the closer the delamination to the free surface of laminate, the slower the delamination growth under compressive fatigue loading. The effects of laminate configuration on delamination growth are also investigated.