The continuum decohesive finite element (CDFE) has been applied to the analysis of crack growth in fiber-reinforced polymer composites (FRPC). The method combines continuum and cohesive crack modeling seamlessly by statically condensing the discrete cohesive zone model (DC/.M) into the regular continuum finite element scheme. CDFE has been implemented as an user element of the commercial code Abaqus and proved capable of dealing with multiple composite progressive failure cases with accuracy, efficiency and mesh objectivity. In this paper, CDFE has been enhanced with an improved inner-element discretization scheme and a novel mixed-mode cohesive formulation, which guarantees that the mode I and mode II cracks initiate and propagate simultaneously and smoothly. A double cantilever beam (DCB), end notched flexure (ENF) and mixed-mode bending (MMB) case with analytical solutions have been simulated with enhanced CDFE and traditional CDFE. For the single-mode cases, numerical results with two versions of CDFE are exactly the same but for the mixed-mode cases, much stabler results are obtained with the enhanced CDFE due to the improved inner-element discretization scheme and the implementation of the novel mixed-mode cohesive formulation. In this sense, there is a potential to perform stabler and more efficient simulations with the enhanced CDFE.
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