A benchmark test for validating 3D simulation methods for delamination growth under quasi-static and fatigue loading

A simulation method for fatigue-driven delamination in layered structures involving non-negligible fracture process zones and arbitrarily shaped crack fronts

“…The interlaminar fracture toughness were measured following the standards recommendations [51][52][53] under 4 different mode mixity conditions: 0% (G Ic ), 50%, 75% and 100% (G IIc ). The nominal values are presented in [43]. The Benzeggagh-Kenane [45] mode interpolation parameter, η, in Equation (4) has been fitted to the results and included in Table 3.…”

“…The capabilities of the simulation method for predicting propagation of fatigue-driven delamination are validated against the experimental benchmark case presented in [43,44]. The test specimen is a The test consisted on four loading steps (c.f.…”

“…The simulation and model settings of the simulations are listed in Table 6. Finally, the fatigue properties used as input parameters for the user-defined cohesive elements were obtained from [43] and listed in Table 7. The p m and A m were obtained by fitting Equation (31) to the p and A parameters for pure mode I, mode II, 50% and 75% mode-mixities with R = 0.1 listed in The force-displacement relationship of the 3 specimens [43,44] is plotted in Figure 10 together with the simulation results.…”

“…Finally, the fatigue properties used as input parameters for the user-defined cohesive elements were obtained from [43] and listed in Table 7. The p m and A m were obtained by fitting Equation (31) to the p and A parameters for pure mode I, mode II, 50% and 75% mode-mixities with R = 0.1 listed in The force-displacement relationship of the 3 specimens [43,44] is plotted in Figure 10 together with the simulation results. Note that during fatigue steps 2 and 4, the maximum cyclic displacement is [58] and experimental results [43,44] for force versus displacement from fatigue testing on the demonstrator specimen.…”

“…The p m and A m were obtained by fitting Equation (31) to the p and A parameters for pure mode I, mode II, 50% and 75% mode-mixities with R = 0.1 listed in The force-displacement relationship of the 3 specimens [43,44] is plotted in Figure 10 together with the simulation results. Note that during fatigue steps 2 and 4, the maximum cyclic displacement is [58] and experimental results [43,44] for force versus displacement from fatigue testing on the demonstrator specimen. The dependence between the prescribed displacement, U3, and the number of cycles, N , is shown in Figure 8.…”