Influence of contact phenomena on embedded delaminations growth in composites

Numerical geometrically nonlinear analyses have been performed to investigate the influence of contact phenomena on multiple embedded delamination growth in composite panels under compressive load. An in-house finite element method code based on the modified virtual crack closure technique, which analyses delamination growth, combined with the penalty method approach, which takes into account contact phenomena, was used for computations. Compressed composite panels with two embedded delaminations have been investigated for various geometrical configurations with different delaminations' sizes and positions. Comparisons with a single embedded delamination model introduced in previous papers are presented. Finally a comparison between contact and no-contact approaches is shown for a significant geometrical configuration.