Geometric Modeling of Transverse
Cracking of Composites
Angel Agrawal, Scott Zacek, Kyle Nixon, Chris Montgomery,
Philippe Geubelle, Nancy Sottos, Craig Przybyla, and George Jefferson
1 Introduction
Continuous-fiber laminated composites have been shown to be a valuable material
option when high specific stiffness and strength are desired, particularly in the
aerospace industry [1]. However the random nature of the composite microstructure
complicates the experimental and analytical study of their failure response. The
primary objective of this research project is to develop a set of multiscale analytical
and experimental tools to investigate the link between the geometrical and material
parameters that define the microstructure and one of the failure modes of composite
laminates, i.e., the cracking taking place in 90 ◦ plies due to the transverse loading of
the laminate. Emphasis is placed on transverse cracking as this failure mode is often
considered as a precursor to other more critical failure modes such as delamination
and fiber breaking.
On the experimental side, transverse failure tests have been conducted using a
specially designed hybrid composite laminate composed of a carbon/epoxy transverse (90 ◦ ) ply sandwiched between two glass/epoxy 0 ◦ plies [2]. On the analytical
side, a cohesive interface-enriched generalized finite element method (IGFEM)
combined with analytical sensitivity analysis has been formulated and implemented
A. Agrawal · S. Zacek · K. Nixon · P. Geubelle ()
Department of Aerospace Engineering, University of Illinois, Urbana, IL, USA
e-mail: aagrawa5@illinois.edu; geubelle@illinois.edu
C. Montgomery · N. Sottos
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Illinois, Urbana, IL, USA
e-mail: cbmontg2@illinois.edu; n-sottos@illinois.edu
C. Przybyla · G. Jefferson
Air Force Research Laboratory/RX, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Dayton, OH, USA
e-mail: craig.przybyla@wpafb.af.mil; george.jefferson.1@us.af.mil
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
S. Ghosh et al. (eds.), Integrated Computational Materials Engineering (ICME),
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-40562-5_13
349
Cracking of Composites
Angel Agrawal, Scott Zacek, Kyle Nixon, Chris Montgomery,
Philippe Geubelle, Nancy Sottos, Craig Przybyla, and George Jefferson
1 Introduction
Continuous-fiber laminated composites have been shown to be a valuable material
option when high specific stiffness and strength are desired, particularly in the
aerospace industry [1]. However the random nature of the composite microstructure
complicates the experimental and analytical study of their failure response. The
primary objective of this research project is to develop a set of multiscale analytical
and experimental tools to investigate the link between the geometrical and material
parameters that define the microstructure and one of the failure modes of composite
laminates, i.e., the cracking taking place in 90 ◦ plies due to the transverse loading of
the laminate. Emphasis is placed on transverse cracking as this failure mode is often
considered as a precursor to other more critical failure modes such as delamination
and fiber breaking.
On the experimental side, transverse failure tests have been conducted using a
specially designed hybrid composite laminate composed of a carbon/epoxy transverse (90 ◦ ) ply sandwiched between two glass/epoxy 0 ◦ plies [2]. On the analytical
side, a cohesive interface-enriched generalized finite element method (IGFEM)
combined with analytical sensitivity analysis has been formulated and implemented
A. Agrawal · S. Zacek · K. Nixon · P. Geubelle ()
Department of Aerospace Engineering, University of Illinois, Urbana, IL, USA
e-mail: aagrawa5@illinois.edu; geubelle@illinois.edu
C. Montgomery · N. Sottos
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Illinois, Urbana, IL, USA
e-mail: cbmontg2@illinois.edu; n-sottos@illinois.edu
C. Przybyla · G. Jefferson
Air Force Research Laboratory/RX, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Dayton, OH, USA
e-mail: craig.przybyla@wpafb.af.mil; george.jefferson.1@us.af.mil
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
S. Ghosh et al. (eds.), Integrated Computational Materials Engineering (ICME),
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-40562-5_13
349