An elastic-interface model for delamination buckling in laminated plates

This paper presents a one-dimensional model for a composite laminated plate containing a delamination and subjected to uniaxial compression. The delaminated plate is thought of as two sublaminates partly connected by an elastic interface. With the aim of modeling the behavior of the thin layer of resin joining the laminae together in a real laminate, this interface is considered to be a continuous distribution of normal and tangential elastic springs. The nonlinear equilibrium equations, derived from von Karman's plate theory, are solved explicitly, and the normal and tangential interlaminar stresses are determined. The virtual crack closure technique is used to deduce the expressions for the mode-I and mode-II energy release rates, as these are needed in order to apply a mixed-mode crack-growth criterion.