A COMPARISON OF DISCRETE-LAYER FIBER-ALIGNED AND CONVENTIONAL MESHING APPROACHES FOR PROGRESSIVE FAILURE SIMULATION OF OPEN HOLE COMPOSITE PANELS

摘要

Discrete-layer, fiber-aligned (DLFA) finite element meshes represent an attempt to allowrncontinuum damage material models to accurately simulate the evolution of transverse matrixrncracking, delamination and fiber breakage that collectively result in failure of a laminate. DLFArnfinite element models rely on the evolution of delaminations that serve to link together therndifferent failure patterns that naturally evolve on adjacent plies that have different fiberrnorientations. This simultaneous evolution of delamination and ply failure poses severernconvergence difficulties that most often force analysts to utilize explicit finite element solutions.rnIn this paper, the use of implicit finite element analysis is made practical by the use ofrnHelius:MCT? multiscale progressive failure software that serves as an add-on to commercialrnimplicit finite element codes. In addition, the progressive failure software containsrnconvergence-enhancing algorithms that provide very robust convergence for progressive failurernsimulation involving simultaneous intra-laminar failure and delamination. The ability tornfacilitate converged equilibrium solutions provides a unique opportunity to study thernperformance characteristics of discrete-layer, fiber-aligned finite element models within therncontext of implicit finite element analysis.