Mode II interlaminar damage analysis of composite laminates based on cohesive elements

A new type of zero-thickness cohesive element model is proposed to study the composite interlaminar damage, which can accurately predict the delamination propagation of mode II problem. The model consists of constitutive relationship, damage criterion and damage evolvement. This cohesive model was implemented in the explicit integration scheme with the commercial finite element software ABAQUS using the user defined element subroutine (VUEL). The model was used to predict the delamination propagation in the end notched flexure test (ENF) of domestic carbon fiber/resin composite CCF300/5428. The result shows that this cohesive element is effective to analysis the delamination in the composite laminates.