Delamination Fracture Toughness of Composite Specimens

International Journal of Research in Advanced Technology - IJORAT
Vol. 1, Issue 10, DECEMBER 2016
DELAMINATION FRACTURE TOUGHNESS

OF COMPOSITE SPECIMENS
Mr.S.Thanumalaya perumal1, Mr D.Ram sundar2, Mr U.Nainar3
1. Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Francis Xavier Engineering College-Tirunelveli1
Abstract: Study on Delamination in composite material is used to express the fracture behavior of the
composite material. The Single leg bending beam is a specimen type considered in fracture mechanics to
measure the mode-II fracture properties of composites. In this paper the Finite Element Analysis of SLB
specimen with artificially introduced cracks using the concept of fiber bridging modeling is analyzed. The
specimen consists of unidirectional Glass/Epoxy composites. Analytically for the strain energy release rate
(G) of the SLB specimen is computed. Finite Element Analysis has also been carried out on the specimen and
the load displacement results for the specified crack or delamination length are obtained.
Keywords: Delamination, SLB specimen, Energy release rate.
I.
INTRODUCTION
Delamination is a primary failure mode of
laminated composite materials. Delamination and
their susceptibility to growth are normally
characterized using fracture mechanics principles and
the strain energy release rate parameter (G). The
critical value of strain energy release rate, the fracture
toughness,is dependent on both the material and the
manner in which the delamination is loaded. Three
orthogonal modes of loading are considered and
include mode I (opening), mode II (sliding shear),
and mode III (tearing shear) as shown in Figure1. A
delamination may be loaded in one of these modes,
or more likely, it will be loaded in some combination
of these modes. The critical strain energy release rate
at which the delamination actually begins to extend
has been shown to vary significantly depending on
the mode of loading.
Crack propagation along interfaces often
controls the mechanical behavior of composites. The
toughness of a fiber reinforced composite depends on
delamination of the matrix-fiber interfaces, and
frictional sliding along the interfaces. Failure of
laminated composites can occur by delamination of
the plies. However, crack deflection along interfaces,
and multiple delaminations between successive plies
or bonded interfaces, can lead to enhanced tensile
All Rights Reserved 2016 IJORAT
strengths and energy dissipation Delamination is

phenomenon of degradation of composite laminates
that may be lead to the failure of the structure or that
may be reducing its stiffness and strength. This
phenomenon generally occurs in edge zone of the
laminate structure due to possible out-of plane
stresses in these zones. The analysis of phenomenon
is commonly divided into (i) the study of initiation of
delamination and (ii) the study of propagation of an
existing delamination.
Laminated
fiber
reinforced
plastic
composites are particularly susceptible to failure by
delamination and growth owing to the relatively low
tensile strength of matrix. Energy-based linear elastic
fracture mechanics has been extensively used
delamination modeling of composites. To determine
if a given loading on the structure would cause
delamination growth the strain energy release rate
(G) at the crack front is tested against some criterion
involving the delamination fracture toughness or
critical strain energy release rate of the material.
The mixed mode bending (MMB) test is
performed for determining delamination toughness.
This simple test is a combination of the standard
Mode I (opening) test and a Mode II (sliding) test.
27

2.2. Stress Intensity Factor

The stress intensity factor is a fundamental
quantity that governs the stress field near the
crack tip. It can be used to predict the failure of a
cracked plate. The stress intensity factor depends
on both the geometrical configuration and the
loading conditions of the body. A number of
methods have been used for the determination of
stress intensity factors. They may be classified as
i.
Theoretical (Westergard semi-inverse
method and method of complex potentials).
ii.
Numerical (Green's function, weight
functions, boundary collocation, alternating
iii.
Method, integral transforms, continuous
dislocations and finite elements methods).
iv.
Experimental (photo elasticity, moir,
holography, caustics, and combinations of
these methods).
III. FINITE ELEMENT ANALYSIS

3.1. Cohesive Zone Model (CZM)
Figure 1.Three basic types of fracture modes
II.
THEORETICAL ANALYSIS
2.1. Energy release rate (G)
The energy release rate, G, can be

considered as the energy source for the crack growth
and the total potential energy is the only source for
crack growth. On the other hand, the resistance to
crack growth (R) can be considered as the energy
sink and depends on the operating mode of fracture
mechanism. It should be mentioned that the latter
depends on many factors including: the chemical
composition and microstructure of the material,
temperature, environment, loading rate, and the state
of stress.
To study the problem, fracture mechanics

based approach can be used for sharp crack of linear
elastic materials. As to the energy-based criterion
(strain energy release rate, SERR), the virtual crack
closure technique (VCCT) is powerful tool to
compute SERR by using finite element analysis
(FEA). Some applications of VCCT to study the
crack growth can be found. However, in reality,
neither the idealized sharp crack nor the linear elastic
material does exist. This is particular true for
composite materials and adhesively bonded joints.
Therefore, recently, using of cohesive zone model
(CZM) is increasing. The idea of CZM is
straightforward. It is a natural extension of BD
model, which was proposed for perfect plastic
materials. However, the implementation of CZM
with FEA varies. There are two major classes:
continuum cohesive zone model (CCZM) and
discrete cohesive zone model (DCZM).
Fracture or delamination along an interface
between phases plays a major role in limiting the
toughness and the ductility of the multi-phase
materials, such as matrix- matrix composites and
laminated composite structure. This has motivated
considerable research on the failure of the interfaces.
Interface delamination can be modeled by traditional
fracture mechanics methods such as the nodal release
technique. Alternatively, we can using techniques
that directly introduce fracture mechanism by
adopting softening relationships between tractions
and the separations, which in turn introduce a critical
28

fracture energy that is also the energy required to

break apart the interface surfaces. This technique is
called the cohesive zone model. The interface
surfaces of the materials can be represented by a
special set of interface elements or contact elements,
and a cohesive zone model can be used to
characterize the constitutive behavior of the interface.
The geometry of the SLB specimen which is

used for the modeling in finite element analysis is
standard fracture mechanics SLB specimen.
Figure 4. SLB specimen
Figure 2. Behavior of the interface.
The
specimens
investigated
are
unidirectional epoxy/glass fiber sheets of thickness of
1.62 mm. The initial crack was 31 mm. Width of
the cracked specimen was b = 23.81 mm. The length
of the specimen is
123.9mm. The material
characterized by the following elastic constants:
modulus in the fiber direction
= 135Gpa,
transverse modulus
modulus
Poisson ratio
Figure 3. Cohesive theory

The cohesive zone model consists of a
constitutive relation between the traction T acting on
the interface and the corresponding interfacial
separation (displacement jump across the interface).
The definitions of traction and separation depend on
the element and the material model.
i.
ii.
iii.
iv.
v.
Mode I for normal data (input on TBDATA

command as C1, C2, C5 and C6).
max = maximum normal contact stress (input
on TBDATA command as C1 using
TB,CZM).
= contact gap at the completion of
debonding (input on TBDATA command as
C2 using TB,CZM)
= damping coefficient (input on TBDATA
command as C5 using TB, CZM).
Input on TBDATA command as C6 using
TB,CZM) to 1
= 9Gpa, shear
= 5.2Gpa, and
=
= 0.34, and
= 1.9Gpa.
= 0.46.
3.2. Modeling and Meshing

The model is meshed with two elements
which are PLANE 182 and INTER 202. The
PLANE182 element is used to mesh the areas around
the cohesive zone where INTER 202 is used to mesh
the interface elements.
Plane 182
Inter 202
Figure 5. Representation of Elements
29

composite has been carried out by using the finite

element software ANSYS.
The displacement at the crack mouth is obtained
from the result. Then the displacement is converted
into Energy release rate (G).
Figure 6. Meshed model of the specimen

3.3. Boundary condition and Loading condition
The meshed model is arrested on both end of the
beam in Y axis. the load is applied at the midpoint of
the beam.
Figure 9. Load Vs Energy Release rate
Fig.9. shows that the applied load is
increased; energy release rate is also increased.
Load,P
(N)
Figure 7. Boundary condition

IV. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The Energy Release Rate (G) of the
unidirectional SLB composite specimen is obtained
by using FEA (ANSYS) results
Displacement
(mm)
Energy Release Rate

(N/mm)
0.45169
0.000564424
0.90356
0.002258144
1.80792
0.009036577
10
2.2604
0.007146984
15
3.3927
0.016093366
20
4.5266
0.02863292
30
6.7996
0.064358407
40
9.0809
0.114966535
50
11.3721
0.180042887
60
13.6751
0.259926785
80
18.33267
0.464984428
100
23.063
0.732567402
Theoretical calculation of Energy release

rate for SLB specimen of Epoxy/glass fiber
composite is obtained by using the following
formulas
Figure 8. ANSYS result

The numerical analysis on delamination of SLB
specimen of Epoxy/glass fiber unidirectional
30

V. CONCLUSION
Fracture toughness is determined on the
crack propagated on unidirectional SLB Epoxy-glass
fiber composite material is numerically done by using
ANSYS software. The energy release rate of the
material is obtained by using the theoretical formula.
REFERENCES
1. H. Sun, S. Rajendran and D. Q. Song Finite Element
Analysis on Delamination Fracture Toughness of
Composite Specimens Proceedings of 2nd Asian ANSYS
User Conference, Nov 11-13, 1998, Singapore, pp 1-8
2. Kyongchan Song, Carlos G. Davila, Cheryl A. Rose,
Guidelines and Parameter Selection for the Simulation of
Progressive Delamination, ABAQUS Users Conference,
2008, pp 1-15.
3. Bent F. Sorensen, E. Kristofer Gamstedt, Rasmus C.
Ostergaard, Stergios Goutianos, Micromechanical model
of cross over fiber bridging prediction of mixed mode
bridging laws, Mechanics of Material, Vol.40, 2008, pp.
220-234.
4. Tamuzs V, Tarasovs S, and Vilks U.
Progressive
delamination and fiber bridging modeling in double
cantilever beam composite specimen. Engineering
Fracture Mechanics 68 (2001), pp513525.
31

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International Journal of Research in Advanced Technology - IJORAT

Vol. 1, Issue 10, DECEMBER 2016