Growth stability analysis of embedded delaminations with the use of FE node relocation procedure and effective resistance curve concept

Embedded delamination growth stability was analysed with the help of the FEM combined with a specially developed procedure for node relocation to obtain a smooth variation of the SERR components along the delamination contour. The procedure consisted in the replacement of the actual material with the very compliant fictitious one and the displacement of the delamination front nodes by the previously determined distance in a local coordinate system. Due to this loading, the new delamination front was created. Subsequently, the original material was restored. Evolution under inplane compression of three initially circular delaminations of diameters d = 30, 40 and 50 mm embedded in thin laminates of two different stacking sequences, i.e., 0 ◦ 4 //0 ◦ 24 and 0 ◦ 4 //90◦ 20/0 ◦ 4 were considered. It was found that the growth history and the magnitude of the load that triggers unstable delamination growth depended mainly on the combined effects of the initial delamination size, delamination contour, out of plane post-buckling geometry of the disbonded layers, reinforcement arrangement, and magnitude and variation of the SERR components along the delamination contour. To present the combined effect of these features, an original concept of the effective resistance curve, GReff , was introduced.