Proceedings of 2nd Asian ANSYS User Conference, Nov 11-13, 1998, Singapore

Finite Element Analysis on Delamination Fracture

Toughness of Composite Specimens

H. Sun, S. Rajendran and D. Q. Song

Materials Technology Application Centre

Singapore Productivity and Standards Board
1, Science Park Drive
Singapore 118221

Abstract

This paper reports a summary of our studies on delamination fracture toughness

(critical strain energy release rate) of woven-fabric carbon-epoxy composite
specimens by finite element analysis and experiment. For finite element analysis, a
three dimensional model using plate finite elements was used. The strain energy
release rate was computed using the modified virtual crack closure technique.
Comparison of mode I critical strain energy release rate values obtained by finite
element analysis and experimental results shows a good agreement with a
difference of 2.04%. Comparision of mixed mode (I + II) critical strain energy
release rate also shows a fairly good agreement with a difference of 4.1%.

1. Introduction
Delamination is a phenomenon of degradation of composites laminates that may lead to the
failure of the structure or that may reduce its stiffness and strength. This phenomenon
generally occurs in edge zones of the laminate structure due to possible out-of plane stresses
in these zones. The analysis of the phenomenon is commonly divided into (i) the study of
initiation of delamination and (ii) the study of propagation of an existing delamination. This
paper is concerned with the later.

Laminated fibre reinforced plastic composites are particularly susceptible to failure by

delamination initiation and growth owing to the relatively low tensile strength of the matrix.
Energy-based linear elastic fracture mechanics has been extensively used for delamination
modelling of composites. To determine if a given loading on the structure would cause
delamination growth, the strain energy release rate (G) at the crack front is tested against
some criterion involving the delamination fracture toughness or critical strain energy
release rate (Gc) of the material. Gc is a material property and its experimental
determination is an important step in characterising the composite material. In this paper,
calculation of Gc by experiment and FEM for a woven-fabric carbon-epoxy composite
material is presented.

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Proceedings of 2nd Asian ANSYS User Conference, Nov 11-13, 1998, Singapore

2. Determination of Gc

In the delamination experiments, usually the critical value of load and the corresponding
crack length at the verge of crack growth are determined. These critical values are then used
in analytical formulae [1] to calculate Gc. The critical values of load and crack length may
also be used as input for the finite element model to calculate Gc. For the work reported in
this paper, Instron Mechanical Tester is used for carrying out the test. ANSYS has been used
to cary out finite element analysis. Double Cantilever Beam (DCB) specimens have been
used for the determination of GIc and Single Leg Bending (SLB) specimens have been used
for the determination of G(I+II)c.

Using the results of finite element analysis, the strain energy release rate was calculated by
the modified virtual crack closure technique. In this technique, the work required to close a
delamination by a virtual amount of surface area δA is assumed to be equal to the strain
energy released for the same amount of delamination extension. Therefore, G can be
expressed in terms of the element resultants which are calculated for the nodes of the
elements immediately ahead of the delamination front and the nodal displacements of the
elements immediately behind the delamination front. The calculation of G for each element
position along the delamination front can be summarised by the following equation [2,3]:

1 n k
G= ∑
2δA i =1
∑ (T ∆U )
j =1
j j i (1)

where Tj are the element resultants, which will include both nodal forces and moments, Uj
are the relative displacement components, including translations and rotations between
upper and lower delamination surfaces, n and k are the number of nodes in the closing face
and the number of degrees of freedom per node, respectively, and δA is the element surface
area.

3. FEM Analysis on DCB specimen

3.1 DCB Specimen Geometry and Material Properties

The geometry of the DCB specimen used is as shown in Fig.1. The specimen is six plies
thick, each ply being 0.27 mm thick, and made of woven fabric carbon-epoxy composite
with unidirectional layup. The material properties of the pre-preg are as follows:

Exx = 54.5 GPa, Gxy = 3.1 GPa

Eyy = 54.5 GPa, νxy = 0.08

The subscripts x and y denote the longitudinal and transverse directions, respectively. The
initial delamination has a length of 31 mm ( measured from the loaded edge) and is located
at the mid-plane of the specimen.

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Proceedings of 2nd Asian ANSYS User Conference, Nov 11-13, 1998, Singapore

Figure 1. Geometry of the DCB specimen

3.2 Finite element model and calculation of G

The finite element model created in ANSYS is shown in Figs. 2 and 3. Due to symmetry in
geometry and loading, only one half of the specimen has been modelled. The model uses 8-
noded quadrilateral plate elements and a finer mesh has been used in the zone containing the
delamination front. The model has a total of 450 elements and 7770 degrees of freedom. A
uniform displacement equal to the critical displacement (δc) at the verge of delamination
growth observed from experiment has been applied along the loaded edge to simulate the
test which was carried out under displacement control. The finite element results (nodal
displacements and element reactions) were used for computing the strain energy release rate
using Eq.(1).

Fig.2. Finite element mesh for DCB specimen

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Proceedings of 2nd Asian ANSYS User Conference, Nov 11-13, 1998, Singapore

Fig.3. Refined mesh near the crack front (DCB specimen)

3.3 Results

The GIc distribution calculated from the plate model for an applied displacement of 8.1 mm (16.2
mm total displacement on a full specimen) are shown in Table 1. It can be seen that the finite
element results show good agreement with the Experimental [4] results. A scrutiny of the values
listed in Table 1 also reveals that for the initially straight delamination front GIc is maximum at the
longitudinal centreline of the DCB specimen and minimum at the specimen edges.

Table 1. Distribution of GIc for the DCB model

Distance from GIc by FEM GIc by Experiment Relative Error

centreline (mm) (N/mm) (N/mm) (%)
0 1.4495 - -
1.5873 1.4473 - -
3.1747 1.4418 - -
4.762 1.4301 - -
6.439 1.4085 - -
7.937 1.3428 - -
9.524 1.2832 - -
11.1111 1.0298 - -
Average 1.3541 1.3823 2.04

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Proceedings of 2nd Asian ANSYS User Conference, Nov 11-13, 1998, Singapore

4. FEM Analysis on SLB specimen

4.1 SLB Specimen Geometry and Material Properties

The geometry of the SLB specimen modelled in the analysis is shown in Fig.4, in which the
thickness, span width and crack length of the specimen are specified. The initial crack is located at
the mid-plane of the specimen. The specimen is made of unidirectional woven-fabric carbon fibre-
epoxy composite and the material properties are shown below:

Exx = 48.3 GPa, Gxy = 2.563 Gpa

Eyy = 44.8 GPa, νxy = 0.0464

The results of the delamination experiment [5] for the SLB specimens are summarised in Table 2.

Figure 4. Geometry of the SLB specimen

4.2 FEM Model and calculation of GI, GII, GIII distributions

Due to symmetry in geometry and loading, only half of the specimen has been modelled. The
model uses 20-noded brick elements and the mesh has been refined in the zone containing the crack
front as shown in Figs. 5 and 6. The initial gap between crack surfaces was assumed to be 0.01
mm. The model has 310 20-noded brick elements.

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Proceedings of 2nd Asian ANSYS User Conference, Nov 11-13, 1998, Singapore

Fig.5. Finite element mesh for SLB specimen

Fig.6. Refined mesh near the crack front (SLB specimen)

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Proceedings of 2nd Asian ANSYS User Conference, Nov 11-13, 1998, Singapore

4.3 Results

A uniform displacement equal to the critical displacement (δcr) obtained from experiments has been
applied at the mid-point of the beam to simulate the three point bending test. The computed strain
energy release rates GI, GII and GIII which correspond to fracture mode I, II and III, respectively,
and the total energy release rate G along the delamination front are listed in Table 3. It can be seen
that there a good agreement with a relative error of 4.1% between the finite element and the
experimental results. It is seen that G and GI are highest at the longitudinal centre line and lowest at
the edges of a specimen whereas GII does not show much variation across the width of the
specimen.

Table 2. Summary of SLB Delamination Experiment

Specimen Thickness Delamination Critical Load Critical Displacement Mixed mode

No. t (mm) length a Per δcr Fracture Toughness
(mm) (N) (mm) G(I+II)c
(N/mm)

41 3.616 27.4 290 3.50 0.985

42 3.788 29.0 309 3.53 1.080

43 3.549 28.5 264 3.59 0.949

44 3.734 27.5 269 3.91 1.002

45 3.630 31.0 263 3.53 0.913

Average 3.663 28.68 279 3.61 0.986

Table.3. Energy release rate distribution of SLB Specimen

Distance (mm) G (N/mm) GI (N/mm) GII (N/mm) GIII (N/mm)

1.00 0.959 0.532 0.426 0.0012
3.00 1.028 0.594 0.433 0.0008
5.00 1.046 0.607 0.439 0.0004
7.00 1.052 0.610 0.442 0.0002
9.00 1.054 0.611 0.443 0.0001
11.0 1.054 0.611 0.443 0.0001
13.0 1.052 0.610 0.442 0.0002
15.0 1.046 0.607 0.439 0.0004
17.0 1.028 0.594 0.433 0.0008
19.0 0.959 0.532 0.426 1.162
Average 1.028 0.591 0.436 0.528
Experimental 0.986 - - -
value

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Proceedings of 2nd Asian ANSYS User Conference, Nov 11-13, 1998, Singapore

5. Concluding remarks

The critical strain energy release rate (G) values for mid-plane delamination in DCB and SLB
specimens made of woven-fabric carbon fibre-compsite epoxy material have been presented in this
paper. The G values have been determined both by experiment and finite element analysis. Finite
element analysis was carried out using ANSYS with composite shell elements as well as 20-node
solid elements. The critical strain energy release rate values computed by FEM compare well with
experimental results. For DCB and SLB specimens the difference in FEM and experimental values
is about 2.04% and 4.1%, respectively.

Acknowledgement - The funding by National Science and Technology Board (NSTB) of

Singapore for this project is greatly acknowledged. The authors also would like to thank other
members of the team, A.Lee and C.K.Tan of SPSB for their invaluable help in experiments, and
S.P.Phua and H.F.Lee of ST Aero for their comments and discussions during the project.

References
1. J.W.Gillespie, Jr. And L.A. Carlsson, Interlaminar fracture of laminated composite materials, in
Test Methods Vol.6 of Delaware Composites Design Encyclopaedia, R. Bryon Pipes et al.,
Technomic Publishing Co., 1996.

2. Robinson, F. Javidrad and D. Hitchings, Finite Element Modelling of Delamination Growth in

the DCB and edge delaminated DCB specimens, Composite Structures, 32, 275-285, 1995.

3. Davison, R. Kruger and M Kong, Effect of stacking sequence on energy release rate distribution
in multidirectional DCB and ENF Specimens, Engrg. Frac. Mech, Vol 55, No. 4, pp 557 - 569,
1996.

4. K.K. Ong, Experimental and numerical study of delamination in composite materials, A part of
Quarterly Report of ATP R&D Project 9, May 1997, MAC/PSB.

5. S.Rajendran and Song Dong Qing, Determination of mixed mode (I+II) delamination fracture
toughness of woven fabric carbon-epoxy composite material, Quarterly Report of ATP R&D
Project 9, July 1998, MTAC/PSB.