Parameter studies and evaluation principles of delamination damage in laminated composites

Delamination represents one of the most severe failure modes in composite laminates, especially when they are subjected to uniaxial compression loads. The evaluation of the delamination damage has always been an essential issue of composite laminates for durability and damage tolerance in engineering practice. Focusing on the most typical and representative elliptical delamination issue, an analytical model simultaneously considering the conservative buckling process and non-conservative delamination propagation process is implemented. Various computational cases considering different delamination depths, directions, aspect ratios, and areas are established, and the predicted results based on the analytical model are carefully compared. Effects of these geometrical delamination parameters on the buckling, delamination propagation, and failure behaviors of composite laminates are thoroughly analyzed, and innovative evaluation principles of the delamination damage have been concluded. It is found that the delamination area is the key factor that truly affecting the failure behaviors of delaminated composites, and the local / global buckling and failure loads show clear linearity with the delamination area, whilst the delamination depth and direction only have slight effects.