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Progressive Failure Analysis of Composite Structures Using a Constitutive Material Model (USERMAT) Developed and Implemented in ANSYS ©

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Abstract

Composites are materials characterized by complex failure phenomena that onset and interact. Several approaches are available in literature to predict the behaviour of composite structures taking into account failure modes. However, most of them require the knowledge of experimental parameters, which generally are not provided by composite suppliers. Progressive failure techniques represent a valuable alternative to these methodologies because they rely on failure criteria and ply-discount techniques often based on the choice of a single degradation factor whose value is chosen by the analyst as small enough to prevent convergence problems in finite element analyses. The aim of this work is to analyze the behaviour of a composite structure taking into account the damage onset and evolution. The analysis is performed by using a constitutive material model (USERMAT) developed and implemented in the Finite element software ANSYS©. The accuracy of the procedure proposed is assessed by comparing numerical results and experimental data taken from literature.

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  1. CIRA, Italian Aerospace Research Center, via Maiorise, 81043, Capua, CE, Italy

    Elisa Pietropaoli

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  1. Elisa Pietropaoli
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Correspondence to Elisa Pietropaoli.

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Pietropaoli, E. Progressive Failure Analysis of Composite Structures Using a Constitutive Material Model (USERMAT) Developed and Implemented in ANSYS ©. Appl Compos Mater 19, 657–668 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10443-011-9220-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10443-011-9220-0

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