Investigation of damage accumulation and delamination propagation in polymer composite materials based on two-level fracture models

The work is devoted to the study of deformation and fracture processes occurring in layered composites under combined loading modes. The aim of the work is numerical analysis of different modes of fracture, which are simultaneously realized in the samples of laminated composite material. Models of laminated composite material with imitation of technological defects in the form of material debonding are constructed. The delamination process is implemented using the virtual crack closure technique. The processes of damage accumulation and fracture of laminated composites are set on the basis of the models for reduction of stiffness properties using the Hashin criterion and Matzemiller model. The models are based on the laws corresponding to brittle and plastic fracture. Several models of fracture and degradation of elastic properties have been compared. A multiscale approach was used to solve the difficulties related to the precise description of the composite's internal structure. The essence of the approach is that the analysis of a laminated composite can be performed on three different scales: macro level, meso level and micro level. At the macro level, an equivalent material is used for which the effective properties are determined by homogenization methods, in particular by the mean field method. The multiscale finite element modeling is implemented, in the course of which macroscopic parameters of material sample at each step depend on characteristics and properties of components at the micro-level. The behavior of two samples of laminated polymer composite material was studied with different configuration of embedded defects under the load of two types: uniaxial compression and torsion, and only uniaxial compression. The influence of internal defects on the processes of damage accumulation and material delamination has been established.