Study on failure process of delaminated stiffened composite plates under compression

Failure behavior of the delaminated stiffened composite plates under compression is studied by the finite element method, based on a Global-Local variational model. A virtual crack closure technique and a self-adaptive grid moving scheme are proposed to predict the delamination growth process. The contact effect along the delamination front is considered. The numerical results show that the influences of the distribution and location of the stiffeners, the configuration and size of the delamination, the boundary condition and the contact upon the failure behavior of the plates are significant.