Experimental and numerical investigation of interface damage in composite L-angle sections under four-point bending

Zou, Xi; Yan, Shibo; Matveev, Mikhail; Rouse, James P.; Jones, I. Arthur

Abstract

© The Author(s) 2020. Curved laminates in aero-structures, such as the L-angle sections where webs and flanges meet, are prone to delamination due to high interlaminar stresses in these regions. Some efforts to investigate delamination in these structures can be found in the literature but commonly structures are limited to unidirectional layups or modelling approaches are constrained to the cohesive element based methods. In this work, multi-directional L-angle laminates were manufactured using unidirectional prepregs and tested under four-point bending load conditions to examine the interface damage. Acoustic emission technique was used to assist the capture of damage initiation and propagation. Three interface modelling strategies for predicting delamination, namely cohesive element, cohesive surface and perfectly bonded interface were used in the numerical study. The interface damage behaviour was successfully predicted by the simulation methods and differences among the strategies were compared.

Citation

Zou, X., Yan, S., Matveev, M., Rouse, J. P., & Jones, I. A. (2021). Experimental and numerical investigation of interface damage in composite L-angle sections under four-point bending. Journal of Composite Materials, 55(2), 187-200. https://doi.org/10.1177/0021998320943659

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jun 29, 2020
• Online Publication Date: Jul 29, 2020
• Publication Date: 2021-01
• Deposit Date: Jun 30, 2020
• Publicly Available Date: Jun 30, 2020
• Journal: Journal of Composite Materials
• Print ISSN: 0021-9983
• Electronic ISSN: 1530-793X
• Publisher: SAGE Publications
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 55
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 187-200
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0021998320943659
• Keywords: Delamination; Curved laminate; Cohesive zone model; Damage initiation
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/4740323
• Publisher URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0021998320943659