In order to study an impact damage accumulation problem in composite laminates, a special three-dimensional interface element is proposed to simulate the delamination propagation in laminates. The traction at the interface, which is a function of relative displacements of interface, can reduce to zero when the energy stored in element per unit area reaches critical total energy release rate. This element is incorporated in a commercially available finite element code and applied to the DCB and ENF fracture toughness test problems to demonstrate its validity. The solution converges smoothly and numerical results agree well with the theoretical ones when the element is sufficiently small compared to the significantly deformed area. Also, the present method is applied to damage accumulation problem of CFRP laminates subjected to transverse load and the results obtained are reasonable and interesting.
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