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Costa, Josep

Publications and source records attributed to Costa, Josep.

Simulation of Delamination Propagation in Composites Under High-Cycle Fatigue by Means of Cohesive-Zone Models

A damage model for the simulation of delamination propagation under high-cycle fatigue loading is proposed. The basis for the formulation is a cohesive law that links fracture and damage mechanics to establish the evolution of the damage variable in terms of the crack growth rate dA/dN. The damage state is obtained as a function of the loading conditions as well as the experimentally-determined coefficients of the Paris Law crack propagation rates for the material. It is shown that by using the constitutive fatigue damage model in a structural analysis, experimental results can be reproduced without the need of additional model-specific curve-fitting parameters.

Turon, Albert↗

Simulation of Delamination Under High Cycle Fatigue in Composite Materials Using Cohesive Models

A new thermodynamically consistent damage model is proposed for the simulation of high-cycle fatigue crack growth. The basis for the formulation is an interfacial degradation law that links Fracture Mechanics and Damage Mechanics to relate the evolution of the damage variable, d, with the crack growth rate da/dN. The damage state is a function of the loading conditions (R and (Delta)G) as well as the experimentally-determined crack growth rates for the material. The formulation ensures that the experimental results can be reproduced by the analysis without the need of additional adjustment parameters.

Camanho, Pedro P.↗

An Engineering Solution for Using Coarse Meshes in the Simulation of Delamination with Cohesive Zone Models

This paper presents a methodology to determine the parameters used in the simulation of delamination in composite materials using decohesion finite elements. A closed-form expression is developed to define the stiffness of the cohesive layer. A novel procedure that allows the use of coarser meshes of decohesion elements in large-scale computations is proposed. The procedure ensures that the energy dissipated by the fracture process is correctly computed. It is shown that coarse-meshed models defined using the approach proposed here yield the same results as the models with finer meshes normally used in the simulation of fracture processes.

Turon, Albert↗

An Interface Damage Model for the Simulation of Delamination Under Variable-Mode Ratio in Composite Materials

A thermodynamically consistent damage model for the simulation of progressive delamination under variable mode ratio is presented. The model is formulated in the context of the Damage Mechanics (DM). The constitutive equations that result from the variation of the free energy with damage are used to model the initiation and propagation of delamination. A new delamination initiation criterion is developed to assure that the formulation can account for changes in the loading mode in a thermodynamically consistent way. Interfacial penetration of two adjacent layers after complete decohesion is prevented by the formulation of the free energy. The model is implemented into the commercial finite element code ABAQUS by means of a user-written decohesion element. Finally, the numerical predictions given by the model are compared with experimental results.

Turon, Albert↗