Numerical analysis of intralaminar damage evolution on various composite laminates

The paper presents the numerical modelling of progressive damage distribution on the layers of various configurations of composite laminates (cross-ply, angle-ply, balanced laminate and quasi-isotropic laminate) under tensile loading. The purpose of the paper is to study the effect of the stacking sequence and fibre orientation angles on the damage propagation on multi-layered composites. These damage initiations do not necessarily imply a complete loss of structural integrity of the composite laminate. Additional load can be supported due to the stress redistribution over the fibres. A post-critical analysis is carried out, in order to analyse the integrity or the degradation state of the layers of composite laminates. The progressive failure analysis is performed in ANSYS Composite Prep/Post, to enable the investigation of damage initiation and damage evolution on each ply with various fibre orientations of the composite laminates. The intralaminar failure is initially detected based on a failure criterion and the post-critical analysis is evaluated based on a damage evolution law. The results are presented in terms of representative tensile displacements, which lead to damage initiation and damage evolution on the layers of the analysed composite laminates. Moreover, the laminas with different fibre orientations are investigated for progressive loading steps, from the first local failure to the total collapse. The obtained results show that the damages distribution on the plies of the composite laminates are strongly influenced by the fibre orientations, but also by the interaction with the other laminas and stacking sequence.