An improved orthotropic elasto-plastic damage model for plain woven composites. (May 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Gupta, Mohit; Singh, Harpreet; Khan, Ashraf Nawaz; Mahajan, Puneet; Prabhakaran, R.T. Durai; Alagirusamy, R.
• Is Part Of: Thin-walled structures. Volume 162(2021)
• Publication Date: 2021-05
• Subjects: Computational modeling -- Plastic deformation -- Damage mechanics -- Impact behavior; Thin-walled structures -- Periodicals; 690.1
• DOI: 10.1016/j.tws.2021.107598
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0263-8231

Abstract

Abstract: A ply based non-linear material constitutive model for plain woven (PW) composite, with provision to decouple the effect of plasticity and progressive damage as observed in experiments, is proposed. Mechanical characterization of basalt plain woven (BPW) is performed to evaluate the elastic moduli and strengths, intralaminar and interlaminar fracture energies whereas non-linear behavior was obtained via off-axis tests and Iosipescu test which are not available in literature yet. The single parameter plasticity potential function of Sun and Chen (1989) is modified in terms of effective stress and relation between effective flow stress and equivalent strain is determined from cyclic tests. The separation of plasticity and damage in writing the latter relation is often ignored by researchers in absence of cyclic loading experimental data. The material properties obtained were used as an input for VUMAT sub-routine which was implemented in ABAQUS to simulate the low velocity impact (LVI) phenomenon at three different impact energies and was able to successfully predict force, deflection and absorbed energy response. The accurate prediction of indentation depth and diameter leads to better understand the behavior of the indent region which is formed due to the major contribution of out of plane plastic strains and damage modes. Highlights: Elastic moduli, strengths, Interlaminar (Mode-I and Mode-II) and Intralaminar fracture toughness properties are determined experimentally for BPW laminates. Single parameter plasticity potential function is used to model plasticity in woven laminates. Cyclic off-axis and Iosipescu shear experiments were performed for evaluating plasticity parameters (decoupled from damage). Total damage region around impact zone is captured using ultrasonic C-scan and fiber breakage using Micro-CT tomography and the simulations revealed that indent formation has major contribution.