A High-Fidelity Numerical Study of Trans-Laminar Fracture in Carbon/Epoxy Laminates Under Varying Environmental Conditions

This paper focuses on trans-laminar fracture process under varying environmental conditions which is crucial for the design and certification of many modern engineering applications. High-fidelity Finite Element (FE) models are developed for predicting trans-laminar fracture of a quasi-isotropic carbon/epoxy laminate under room temperature dry, and for the first time hot temperature wet conditions. Such FE modelling of ASTM E1922 specimens has not been done before. The FE models in ABAQUS Explicit employ a Weibull failure criterion for fibre fracture and cohesive surfaces for sub-critical damage to explain the complex trans-laminar fracture process. It successfully captures the toughening mechanisms, which are further enhanced by increased sub-critical damage under hot temperature wet conditions. This can finally be confirmed by the current models which addresses some limitations of ASTM E1922 e.g. a limited ligament length and the tendency of having premature compressive failure at the specimen rear end.