Determination and evaluation of cohesive element parameters for the progressive delamination analysis

Abstract Prediction of the interlaminar fracture behavior of composite materials is important because it occurs at significantly lower loads than the usual mechanical strength of composite materials. To perform progressive delamination analysis, several cohesive properties should be obtained from experimental results. To conduct the mixed‐mode delamination simulation, the Benzeggagh‐Kenane criterion constant should be derived from the experimentally obtained total strain energy release rate‐mode mixture plot. In this study, a series of processes to perform progressive delamination analysis were carried out. Modes I, II, and mixed mode (I+II) interlaminar fracture tests were conducted, and the cohesive properties were obtained using Turon's methodology. The quadratic stress criterion, linear softening behavior, and Benzeggagh‐Kenane criterion were used to perform progressive delamination analysis. The predicted delamination behavior correlated well with experimental results.