Soft body impact on composites: Delamination experiments and advanced numerical modelling

Abstract Cohesive interface elements have become commonly used for modelling composites delamination. However, a limitation of this technique is the fine mesh size required. Here, a novel cohesive element formulation is proposed and demonstrated for modelling the numerical cohesive zone with equal fidelity but fewer elements in comparison to a linear cohesive element formulation. The newly proposed formulation has additional degrees of freedom in the form of nodal rotations which when combined with the use of multiple integration points per cohesive element, allows for delamination propagation to be modelled with increased stability. This element formulation is introduced with an adaptive modelling method, termed Adaptive Mesh Segmentation (AMS). To demonstrate its effectiveness under impact loading the new model is applied to a soft body beam bending test. This test, containing a delamination pre-crack, uses inertial constraints and results in a dynamic stress state when impacted by a gelatin cylinder.