Cohesive fracture modeling of crack growth in thick-section composites

This paper presents a combined method for modeling the mode-I and II crack growth behavior in thick-section fiber reinforced polymeric composites having a nonlinear material response. The experimental part of this study includes crack growth tests of a thick composite material system manufactured using the pultrusion process. It consists of alternating layers of E-glass unidirectional roving and continuous filament mats in a polymeric matrix. Integrated micromechanical and cohesive finite element (FE) models are used to simulate the crack growth response in eccentrically loaded single-edge-notch, (tension), ESE(T) and notched butterfly specimens. Micromechanical constitutive models for the mat and the roving layers are used to generate the effective nonlinear material behavior from the in situ fiber and matrix responses. The validity of the numerical modeling approach before the onset of crack growth is investigated using an infrared thermal method. Cohesive FE models are calibrated and used to simulate the complete crack growth behavior for different crack configurations. The proposed integrated framework of multi-scale material models with cohesive fracture models is shown to be an effective method for predicting the structural and material responses including failure load and crack growth in thick-section fiber reinforced polymeric composites. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.