FEM based delamination damage analysis of bonded FRP composite pipe joints

Delamination damage is one of the major type of fractures encountered by laminated FRP structures, greatly effecting their structural stability. Development of finite element method (FEM) based modelling and simulation technique in order to analyze delamination growth in laminated FRP composite made single lap pipe joints, is the prime concern of the present research. Layered solid 185 elements of ANSYS 18.0 has been used for modelling the FRP composite tubes. Ansys Parametric Design Language (APDL) codes have been developed to simulate delaminations and study their effect on interlaminar stresses. Delamination damages have been considered in the ply-interfaces of the composite tubes in the close vicinity of the adhesive layer and their effect on the adhesive mid-layer stresses has been studied. Comparison of delamination damages in the outer and inner tubes on adhesive stresses revealed that damages in the inner tube are more critical as compared to the delaminated outer adherend.