Strength Prediction of Notched Woven Composite Plates using a Cohesive Zone Approach

The present paper is concerned with modelling damage and fracture in notched woven fabric composites. Previous experimental work has shown that damage at a notch in a variety of GFRP and CFRP composites based on woven fabric reinforcement comprises matrix damage and fibre tow fracture along the plane of maximum stress. It is these experimental observations that inform the failure modelling developed here, in which a cohesive zone approach is used within a 2-D finite element framework. The cohesive zone parameters are based on previously reported experimental measurements for the strength and toughness of the woven fabric materials under investigation. The approach is shown to provide predictions of notched strength that are in very good agreement (less than 11% discrepancy) with experimental results from the literature for a range of GFRP and CFRP woven fabric systems.