Enhanced cohesive zone model to predict delamination behaviour of carbonepoxy laminated curved beams

Abstract

This paper proposes an enhanced Cohesive Zone Model (CZM) for the prediction of delamination in curved beams of epoxy carbon laminates. This model improves the conventional CZM, taking into account the fiber-bridging phenomenon and the variation of the element size among the thickness in the curved zone. The advantages of the enhanced model are underlined when results obtained from the numerical simulations of a four-point-bending test in compliance with ASTM D6415 standard are compared with the corresponding experimental results. The prediction of the post-failure behaviour obtained with this model is closer to that obtained experimentally than with the conventional model.