Delamination Analysis of Layered Shells

This article provides a theoretical and numerical treatment of delaminations in composite shells. A large deformation theory for layered shells of arbitrarily varying thickness, including interface delamination and transverse shear effects, is developed. Asystem of layer coordinates and conjugate coordinates is introduced which allows the results to be presented in a simple compact form analogous to the theory of monocoque shells. To validate the feasibility and the accuracy of the developed theory, a numerical example is provided. The results of the present theory are compared for a one dimensional beam with results obtained from two dimensional finite element analysis and excellent agreement is observed.