Assessment of two methods for the accurate prediction of transverse stress distributions in laminates. (15th April 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Främby, Johannes; Brouzoulis, Jim; Fagerström, Martin
• Is Part Of: Composite structures. Volume 140(2016)
• Page Start: 602
• Page End: 611
• Publication Date: 2016-04-15
• Subjects: Stress recovery in shells -- Transverse stress prediction -- Shell to solid bridging; Composite construction -- Periodicals; Composites -- Périodiques; 624.18
• DOI: 10.1016/j.compstruct.2015.12.036
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0263-8223

Abstract

Abstract: A major challenge for crash failure analysis of laminates is to find a modelling approach which is both sufficiently accurate and computationally efficient. We suggest to adopt a traditional single-layer shell formulation due to its cost effectiveness. In this contribution, we have therefore investigated the potential of two different concepts for obtaining better prediction of the through-the-thickness distribution of the transverse stresses; a crucial issue since the accuracy for a single-layer approach in this respect is normally low. The first concept is a multiscale approach in which the macroscopic shell model is concurrently coupled to a mesoscopic 3D element representation of the heterogeneous material structure on the laminate level. The second concept is a stress recovery method based on integration of the 3D equilibrium equations, with additional smoothing of the in-plane stresses. The main conclusion drawn from the investigations is that, the adopted multiscale concept, although similar to what has been previously reported in the literature, is not a suitable approach to increase the level of accuracy of the predicted transverse stress distributions. However, we conclude that the proposed stress recovery method very well captures the through-the-thickness stress variations in our presented examples.