COMPRESSIVE BEHAVIOR OF MODERATELY THICK PLATES WITH PROGRESSIVE DAMAGE

Abstract

An analytical methodology is presented to study the compressive behavior of moderately thick laminated plates under uniaxial compressive loads. Nonlinear in-plane stress-strain relations for transverse and shear modulus are considered and two failure criteria are incorporated to represent the progressive damage of composite plate structures. The finite-element analysis package, ABAQUS, with an updated Lagrangian formulation and large displacement and small strain kinematic relations, is employed in this study. Numerical analyses are conducted to demonstrate the effect of material nonlinearity, thickness-to-length ratio, and stacking sequence on the compressive behavior. Comparisons between the maximum-strain failure criterion and Hashin's failure criterion are presented.