Simulation of fatigue delamination growth in composite laminates under mode I loading

•An efficient method for modeling delamination under fatigue is proposed.•The method is based on contact interaction of two layers modeled by shell elements.•A method of the durability prediction using cohesive contact elements is developed.•The algorithm gives an instrument for solving high-cycle fatigue problems.•A coarse mesh is sufficient to obtain acceptable accuracy of results. An effective approach based on a cohesive zone model is proposed to simulate the propagation of delamination in the laminated composite materials subjected to high-cycle fatigue and pure mode I loading. It was implemented in the finite element software ANSYS®. Shell elements connected by bonded contact with the cohesive material properties were used. The main advantage of this approach is the algorithm for introducing fatigue damages by applying additional displacements. A double cantilever beam test was analyzed to validate the proposed approach.