SEDL / STP / STP836-EB / STP30204S

Strain-Energy Release Rate Analysis of Cyclic Delamination Growth in Compressively Loaded Laminates

Whitcomb, JD
Research engineer, NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, Va.

Pages: 19    Published: Jan 1984

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Abstract

Delamination growth in compressively loaded composite laminates was studied analytically and experimentally. The configuration used in the study was a laminate with an across-the-width delamination. An approximate superposition stress analysis was developed to quantify the effects of various geometric, material, and load parameters on Mode I and Mode II strain-energy release rates G^I and G^II, respectively. Calculated values of G^I and G^II were then compared with measured cyclic delamination growth rates to determine the relative importance of G^I and G^II. High growth rates were observed only when G^I was large. However, slow growth was observed even when G^I was negligibly small. This growth apparently was due to a large value of G^II.