A progressive analysis of matrix cracking-induced delamination in composite laminates using an advanced phantom node method

Matrix cracking-induced delamination in composite laminates is qualitatively and quantitatively investigated in a finite element framework. The phantom node method is extended to incorporate breakable interfaces at transverse matrix crack tips. New user-defined element types in Abaqus improve the numerical stability in a geometrically nonlinear analysis. The new formulation allows for accurate prediction of matrix crack density and stiffness reduction in a number of composite laminates. Furthermore, the advanced phantom node method is able to simulate progressive matrix cracking-induced delamination with good accuracy.

A Phantom-Node Method with Edge-Based Strain Smoothing for Linear Elastic Fracture Mechanics

This paper presents a novel numerical procedure based on the combination of an edge-based smoothed finite element (ES-FEM) with a phantom-node method for 2D linear elastic fracture mechanics. In the standard phantom-node method, the cracks are formulated by adding phantom nodes, and the cracked element is replaced by two new superimposed elements. This approach is quite simple to implement into existing explicit finite element programs. The shape functions associated with discontinuous elements are similar to those of the standard finite elements, which leads to certain simplification with implementing in the existing codes. The phantom-node method allows modeling discontinuities at an arbitrary location in the mesh. The ES-FEM model owns a close-to-exact stiffness that is much softer than lower-order finite element methods (FEM). Taking advantage of both the ES-FEM and the phantom-node method, we introduce an edge-based strain smoothing technique for the phantom-node method. Numerical results show that the proposed method achieves high accuracy compared with the extended finite element method (XFEM) and other reference solutions.