A SIMPLE NONLOCAL DAMAGE MODEL FOR PREDICTING FAILURE IN A COMPOSITE SHELL CONTAINING A CRACK

The design of commercial aircraft structures composed of composite mat erials requires the ability to predict failure loads in laminated shel ls containing cracks. A damage zone of considerable influence is known to develop in advance of the crack tip in a composite material. The o bjective of this investigation was to develop a computational model th at simulates progressive damage growth around cracks and allows the pr ediction of failure loads in complex laminated shell structures. This was accomplished through the use of a relatively simple, nonlocal dama ge model that incorporates strain-softening. The model was implemented in a finite element shell program. An analysis was performed on a sec tion of a composite aircraft fuselage containing a crack and subjected to internal pressure loading. Reasonably good agreement was found bet ween the calculations and the results from a test. (C) 1997 Elsevier S cience Ltd. All rights reserved.