Failure Analysis of Generally Loaded Composite Laminated Structures Using Finite Element Method

Composite materials are used in several industrial and military applications due to its weight to strength ratio. From the advantages of composite materials, it may pass through different modes of failure before reaching the complete failure. Many analyses have been developed to predict the failure of composite laminates. This paper presents the development
of a progressive damage analysis methodology for stress analysis of composite laminated structures using high order finite element. It is an extension to the work developed by Moutaz [10] where the large effect force vector has been introduced separately to show the geometric nonlinear effect. A simple failure analysis technique has been developed to predict the mode of failure of composite laminated structures. This technique is performed based on the stress and strain values in longitudinal (fiber direction) and transverse (matrix direction) directions of the composite. The mode of failure has been detected and defined at each increment based on the value of stress and strain in fiber and matrix directions. The proposed technique and finite element derivation have been validated by comparing the obtained results with
published results and with results obtained by ANSYS-12 commercial package for the same case studies.