Fiber Reinforced Laminates: Progressive Damage Modeling Based on Failure Mechanisms

In the present article, computational modeling of progressive damage in continuous fiber reinforced laminates is considered. After a general review of modeling approaches and experimentally observed behavior of laminates, the focus is laid on predicting non-linear laminate behavior by models based on continuum damage mechanics. The wide variety of continuum damage models is demonstrated by example of three different damage models from the literature which are described in more detail. Finally, a ply level damage model developed by the authors is presented. The model is based on brittle failure mechanisms postulated by Puck and is able to capture several characteristics of the damage behavior of laminates. Furthermore, this brittle damage model is extended to include plastic shear deformations. It is shown, that the extended model capturing brittle damage and plastic strains leads to significant improvements in the prediction of the non-linear laminate behavior.