Progressive Damage Analysis of Bonded Composite Joints

Leone, Frank A., Jr.; Girolamo, Donato; Davila, Carlos G.

The present work is related to the development and application of progressive damage modeling techniques to bonded joint technology. The joint designs studied in this work include a conventional composite splice joint and a NASA-patented durable redundant joint. Both designs involve honeycomb sandwich structures with carbon/epoxy facesheets joined using adhesively bonded doublers.Progressive damage modeling allows for the prediction of the initiation and evolution of damage within a structure. For structures that include multiple material systems, such as the joint designs under consideration, the number of potential failure mechanisms that must be accounted for drastically increases the complexity of the analyses. Potential failure mechanisms include fiber fracture, intraply matrix cracking, delamination, core crushing, adhesive failure, and their interactions. The bonded joints were modeled using highly parametric, explicitly solved finite element models, with damage modeling implemented via custom user-written subroutines. Each ply was discretely meshed using three-dimensional solid elements. Layers of cohesive elements were included between each ply to account for the possibility of delaminations and were used to model the adhesive layers forming the joint. Good correlation with experimental results was achieved both in terms of load-displacement history and the predicted failure mechanism(s).

Document ID

20130000531

Acquisition Source

Langley Research Center

Document Type

Technical Memorandum (TM)

Authors

Date Acquired

August 27, 2013

Publication Date

December 1, 2012

Subject Category

Report/Patent Number

Funding Number(s)

Distribution Limits

Public

Public Use Permitted.

Available Downloads

Name

Type

20130000531.pdf

STI

No Preview Available

NTRS

NTRS - NASA Technical Reports Server

Available Downloads

Related Records