3D Progressive Damage Modeling for Laminated Composite Based on Crack Band Theory and Continuum Damage Mechanics

A simple continuum damage mechanics (CDM) based 3D progressive damage analysis (PDA) tool for laminated composites was developed and implemented as a user defined material subroutine to link with a commercially available explicit finite element code. This PDA tool uses linear lamina properties from standard tests, predicts damage initiation with an easy-to-implement Hashin-Rotem failure criteria, and in the damage evolution phase, evaluates the degradation of material properties based on the crack band theory and traction-separation cohesive laws. It follows Matzenmiller et al.'s formulation to incorporate the degrading material properties into the damaged stiffness matrix. Since nonlinear shear and matrix stress-strain relations are not implemented, correction factors are used for slowing the reduction of the damaged shear stiffness terms to reflect the effect of these nonlinearities on the laminate strength predictions. This CDM based PDA tool is implemented as a user defined material (VUMAT) to link with the Abaqus/Explicit code. Strength predictions obtained, using this VUMAT, are correlated with test data for a set of notched specimens under tension and compression loads.