Crack propagation in the Double Cantilever Beam using Peridynamic theory

In this study, Peridynamic (PD) theory is used to model mode-I delamination in unidirectional and multi-directional laminated composites. Experiments are conducted to determine mode-I fracture toughness in a unidirectional carbon-epoxy Double Cantilever Beam (DCB) specimen where the crack propagation remains on the original notch plane. The PD model of the DCB geometry is generated using an in-house pre-processor code in MATLAB and implemented in ABAQUS software. The brittle damage law in the original PD model is modified to a bilinear law to capture progressive softening. PD results are found to be in good agreement with the experimental results in terms of force-displacement curves and crack length. Next, this PD approach is applied to a multidirectional angle-ply DCB specimen. The PD model shows that delamination path jumps between the layers as the delamination grows. Force-displacement behaviour and delamination patterns obtained using PD model are compared with the corresponding experimental results from Gong et al. (2018). As a result, PD theory with bilinear softening law is found to successfully capture force-displacement relations and delamination migration in multidirectional laminated composites under mode-I loading conditions.