A numerical analysis of mixed-mode delamination in carbon-epoxy prepregs

Several material models can be found in the literature for analysing mixed- mode, free edge delamination in laminated carbon-epoxies. Although most of the models predict the laminate behaviour rather well, they are usually not very robust in a numerical analysis. In this paper three material models a re assessed. It is shown that a material model based on the formalism of or thotropic damage mechanics performs best from a computational point of view . The model can easily be implemented into a finite element code and shows a robust behaviour in numerical analyses. The delamination growth can be tr aced over a long range, with relatively large loading steps. The effect of some material parameter variations is studied, to obtain the sensitivity to measurement errors. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.