A computational study of interfacial debonding damage in fibrous composite materials

authored by: Peter Wriggers, G. Zavarise, T. I. Zohdi
Abstract: In this paper the effect of finite interface strength, and possible debonding, on the macroscopic response of a sample of fiber-reinforced composite material is computationally investigated via the finite element method. The sample consists of several fibers embedded in a homogeneous matrix, aligned in the longitudinal direction, and randomly distributed in the transverse direction. Plane strain conditions are enforced. Both the matrix and the fibers are assumed to behave in a linearly elastic manner. The approach is to employ unilateral constraints to model interface strength limits. However, because the debonded surfaces are unknown a priori, and depend on the internal fields, the originally linear elastic problem becomes nonlinear, and hence it must be solved in an iterative manner. Accordingly, a nested contact algorithm scheme is developed, based on an active set strategy, to efficiently simulate multiple interacting unilateral constraints. The nesting allows the nonlinear problem within a Newton step to be transformed into a sequence of linear sub-problems. Using the algorithm, numerical tests are performed on a widely used Aluminum/Boron fiber-reinforced composite combination to determine the effects of debonding on changes in macroscopic responses as a function of interface strength and loading. It is shown that the amount of debonded surface area correlates perfectly with the loss in the macroscopic stiffness of the material. This result lends credence to damage evolution laws, for homogenized material models, which employ interface separation surface area as the primary internal damage variable.
Organisation(s): Institute of Mechanics and Computational Mechanics
External Organisation(s): Dipto. di Costruzioni e Trasporti
Technische Universität Darmstadt
Type: Article
Journal: Computational materials science
Volume: 12
Pages: 39-56
No. of pages: 18
ISSN: 0927-0256
Publication date: 07.04.1998
Publication status: Published
Peer reviewed: Yes
ASJC Scopus subject areas: Computer Science(all), Chemistry(all), Materials Science(all), Mechanics of Materials, Physics and Astronomy(all), Computational Mathematics
Electronic version(s): https://doi.org/10.1016/S0927-0256(98)00025-1 (Access: Unknown)
: Details in the research portal "Research@Leibniz University"

BibTeX

@article{859ba2b26db74887bdb96db187384ee5,
title = "A computational study of interfacial debonding damage in fibrous composite materials",
abstract = "In this paper the effect of finite interface strength, and possible debonding, on the macroscopic response of a sample of fiber-reinforced composite material is computationally investigated via the finite element method. The sample consists of several fibers embedded in a homogeneous matrix, aligned in the longitudinal direction, and randomly distributed in the transverse direction. Plane strain conditions are enforced. Both the matrix and the fibers are assumed to behave in a linearly elastic manner. The approach is to employ unilateral constraints to model interface strength limits. However, because the debonded surfaces are unknown a priori, and depend on the internal fields, the originally linear elastic problem becomes nonlinear, and hence it must be solved in an iterative manner. Accordingly, a nested contact algorithm scheme is developed, based on an active set strategy, to efficiently simulate multiple interacting unilateral constraints. The nesting allows the nonlinear problem within a Newton step to be transformed into a sequence of linear sub-problems. Using the algorithm, numerical tests are performed on a widely used Aluminum/Boron fiber-reinforced composite combination to determine the effects of debonding on changes in macroscopic responses as a function of interface strength and loading. It is shown that the amount of debonded surface area correlates perfectly with the loss in the macroscopic stiffness of the material. This result lends credence to damage evolution laws, for homogenized material models, which employ interface separation surface area as the primary internal damage variable.",
keywords = "Contact formulation, Damage, Debonding, Fiber-reinforced composites, Finite elements",
author = "Peter Wriggers and G. Zavarise and Zohdi, {T. I.}",
year = "1998",
month = apr,
day = "7",
doi = "10.1016/S0927-0256(98)00025-1",
language = "English",
volume = "12",
pages = "39--56",
journal = "Computational materials science",
issn = "0927-0256",
publisher = "Elsevier",
number = "1",
}