A continuum damage model is proposed to predict the intralaminar progressive failure of CFRP laminates based on the modified Puck's theory. Puck's failure criteria, with consideration of the in situ strength effect, are employed to evaluate the onset of intralaminar failure including fiber fracture and inter-fiber fracture. After damage initiation, a bilinear constitutive relation is used to describe the damage evolution process. In strict accordance with Puck's concept of action plane, the extent of damage is quantified by the damage variables defined in the fracture plane coordinate system, rather than the traditional material principal coordinate system. Theoretical and experimental evaluation of CFRP laminates under different loading conditions demonstrates the rationality and effectiveness of the proposed numerical model. The model has been successfully implemented in a finite element (FE) software to simulate the intralaminar progressive failure process of CFRP laminates. A good agreement between the experimental and numerical results demonstrates that the present model is capable of predicting the intralaminar failure of CFRP laminates.
Keywords: CFRP laminate; continuum damage model; in situ strength effect; intralaminar progressive failure analysis; modified Puck’s theory.