Crack Propagation in the Double Cantilever Beam Using Peridynamic Theory

Abstract

In this study, Peridynamic (PD) theory is used to model mode-I delamination in unidirectional and multidirectional laminated composites. Experiments are conducted to determine mode-I fracture toughness in a unidirectional carbon-epoxy Double Cantilever Beam (DCB) specimen where the crack propagation remains on the original notch plane. The PD model of the DCB geometry is generated using an in-house pre-processor code in MATLAB and implemented in ABAQUS software. The brittle damage law in the original PD model is modified to a bilinear law to capture progressive softening. PD results are found to be in good agreement with the experimental results in terms of force–displacement curves and crack length. Next, this PD approach is applied to a multidirectional angle-ply DCB specimen. The PD model shows that delamination path jumps between the layers as the delamination grows. Force–displacement behaviour and delamination patterns obtained using PD model are compared with the corresponding experimental results from Gong et al. (2018). As a result, PD theory with bilinear softening law is found to successfully capture force–displacement relations and delamination migration in multidirectional laminated composites under mode-I loading conditions. © 2022 Elsevier Ltd