Progressive Damage Modeling of Notched Composites

There is an increased interest in using non-crimp fabric reinforced composites for primary and secondary structural weight savings in high performance automobile applications. However, one of the main challenges in implementing these composites is the lack of understanding of damage progression under a wide variety of loading conditions for general configurations. Towards that end, researchers at GM and NASA are developing new damage models to predict accurately the progressive failure of these composites. In this investigation, the developed progressive failure analysis model was applied to study damage progression in center-notched and open-hole tension specimens for various laminate schemes. The results of a detailed study with respect to the effect of element size on the analysis outcome are presented.