Progressive Damage and Failure Modeling in Fiber-Reinforced Laminated Composites Containing a Hole

A progressive damage and failure model for fiber-reinforced laminated composites is developed in combination of finite element procedure and micromechanical model based on a unit cell. The micromechanical model can be used to evaluate failure criteria at the micro-level with fiber and matrix material properties rather than laminate material parameters. Once either of the constituents has damaged, the corresponding material properties are degraded by the damage factor. The micromechanical model and the damage theory are implemented in the finite software to model the damage progression and compute the ultimate strength of the composite laminates containing a hole. The simulation results of this model are compared with a model that is used in the failure criteria at the macro-level. The predicted strengths for both models are furthermore compared with the experimental results, and a well agreement in the simulation and experimental results is revealed.