Effects Of Strain Energy Release Rate On Delamination In Temperature Environment
Abstract
Delamination is the weakest and major failure mode in laminated composites. Extensive efforts on initiation and growth of delamination under mechanical load have been investigated. A little emphasis was made earlier to account for the delamination in laminates under temperature loading. Strain energy release rate, a fracture mechanics parameter has been widely accepted to use for study the characteristics of delamination growth. In order to conduct a quick assessment of delamination growth, a closed form expression is developed to quantify the strain energy release rate of the laminate subjected to temperature environment. A finite element model is also developed to use for validating the analytical expression. A parametric study is also conducted to study the effects of strain energy release rate with percentage of angle ply variation in [0₂/+-Θ₃/-+Θ₃/0₂]s