DYNAMIC ANALYSIS OF DELAMINATION GROWTH

The dynamic problem of the growth of a thin homogeneous strip delamination in a thick base plate under axial loading has been studied with a Griffith-type fracture criterion adopted. The variational equation of motion and the dynamic local growth condition at the crack tip are derived. The resulting nonlinear free boundary problem is solved by a numerical technique that combines both the finite element method and the Newton-Raphson iterative method. The local growth condition at the delamination front is examined at each time step of the integration process. It is found that the ratio of the applied compressive strain to the bifurcation strain of the delaminated layer is an important parameter in determining the delamination growth behavior. The results of the present analysis are compared with those of the quasidynamic analysis.