A Mixed Damage Model for Simulating Delamination of Composite T-Joint Components
A mixed cohesive damage model was introduced in this paper to study the delamination of composite T-joint components under pulling load. Prediction together with part of test results was presented in this paper. Modelling prediction had a good agreement with experimental work. This study indicated that the mixed damage scale plays an important role in the progressive damage analysis of T-joint components. The mixed damage scale properly reflected the effects of interaction between different damage modes in simulating damage propagation of an object with strong coupled effects. This coupled damage effect was considered from the material softening stage to final crack. Thus a proper damage accumulation was accounted since materials begin damage. An example given in this paper shown the delamination in the deltoid region of T-joint was simulated very well. Finally, a concept of novel materials was proposed for the deltoid region of T-joint in this paper. Initial investigation by simulating delamination presented that the damage resilience of composite T-joint with novel composite materials in deltoid region significantly improved its damage resilience.