NUMERICAL MODELING OF FIBER-BRIDGING IN CRACKED FIBER-METAL LAMINATES

A numerical study was carried out to determine the suitability of a tw o-dimensional approach for obtaining estimates of the fiber-bridging s tress and the corresponding crack-tip stress intensity factors in crac ked fiber-metal laminates (FML), when the delamination size and shape between the prepeg and the metal layers of the laminate are known or a ssumed. To this end, the boundary element method for two-dimensions is employed, and the numerical results of the bridging stress and the st ress intensity factor for range of parameters are compared with those obtained from the corresponding three-dimensional finite element analy sis. They show that reasonable estimates for these quantities can be o btained when simple assumptions on the fiber-bridging stress distribut ions are made.