Critical Load Prediction in Notched E/Glass-Epoxy-Laminated Composites Using the Virtual Isotropic Material Concept Combined with the Average Strain Energy Density Criterion

Marcos Sánchez; Sergio Cicero; Ali Reza Torabi; Majid Reza Ayatollahi

doi:10.3390/polym13071057

Critical Load Prediction in Notched E/Glass-Epoxy-Laminated Composites Using the Virtual Isotropic Material Concept Combined with the Average Strain Energy Density Criterion

Polymers (Basel). 2021 Mar 27;13(7):1057. doi: 10.3390/polym13071057.

Authors

Marcos Sánchez¹, Sergio Cicero¹, Ali Reza Torabi², Majid Reza Ayatollahi³

Affiliations

¹ LADICIM (Laboratory of Materials Science and Engineering), University of Cantabria, E.T.S. de Ingenieros de Caminos, Canales y Puertos, Av/Los Castros 44, 39005 Santander, Spain.
² Fracture Research Laboratory, Faculty of New Science and Technologies, University of Tehran, Tehran 14395-1561, Iran.
³ Fatigue and Fracture Research Laboratory, Center of Excellence in Experimental Solid Mechanics and Dynamics, School of Mechanical Engineering, Iran University of Science and Technology, Narmak, Tehran 16846, Iran.

Abstract

This paper attempts to validate the application of the Virtual Isotropic Material Concept (VIMC) in combination with the average strain energy density (ASED) criterion to predict the critical load in notched laminated composites. This methodology was applied to E/glass-epoxy-laminated composites containing U-notches. For this purpose, a series of fracture test data recently published in the literature on specimens with different notch tip radii, lay-up configurations, and a number of plies were employed. It was shown that the VIMC-ASED combined approach provided satisfactory predictions of the last-ply failure (LPF) loads (i.e., critical loads).

Keywords: Average Strain Energy Density criterion (ASED); Virtual Isotropic Material Concept (VIMC); fracture; laminated composite; notch.