NUMERICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL ANALYSES OF THE DELAMINATION OF CROSS-PLY LAMINATES

This article focuses on a numerical and experimental investigation of the delamination of cross-ply FRP laminates. The tested samples were cut from plates [0/90/90/0] made of unidirectional carbon-epoxy prepregs in a vacuum autoclave. The experimental tests were performed on precracked double-cantilever beam samples according to ASTM standards with Mode-I loading. The load-displacement relations were recorded during the test and the crack length was measured optically with a digital camera. The corresponding numerical simulations were performed in the finite-element code MSC.Marc. The goal was to assess the critical value of the energy-release rate G, which was chosen as the interlaminar fracture toughness. The simulation used the equality between the energy-release rate and the J-integral for the elastic case.