A NUMERICAL-MODEL FOR BUCKLING AND GROWTH OF DELAMINATIONS IN COMPOSITE LAMINATES

This paper deals with the computation of buckling behaviour and with the prediction of delamination growth in a compressively loaded delaminated laminate. The laminate is modelled as an assembly of three plates with account for geometric non-linearities. Both local and global bucklings are investigated. We propose analytical formulae for computing the energy release rate along the delamination front. Our approach consists in adapting the J-integral method of 2D elasticity to our plate model, dealing with discontinuities instead of singularities. Numerical results are discussed and compared to experiments.