USING CZM AND XFEM TO PREDICT THE DAMAGE TO ALUMINUM NOTCHED PLATES REINFORCED WITH A COMPOSITE PATCH

摘要

The competition between the propagation of cracks in the plate and the detachment of the patch has been invested in this work. Our goal is to analyze the damage of a notched plate reinforced by a composite patch using FEM. The effect of several parameters of the plate/cohesive/patch structure was evaluated. These parameters concern: firstly, the composite patch such as its stacking sequence; secondly, for the plate we consider the size and shape of the notch; finally, the cohesive area that is conditioned by its resistance to the mechanism of damage. The effect and competition of these different parameters are evaluated and presented by both load-displacement curves and curves that show the competition between the detachment of the patch and the propagation of the crack in the plate. The calculations are performed with the ABAQUS numerical code using CZM cohesive elements for patch detachment and the XFEM technique for plate fracture. The results obtained illustrate the variation of the damage as a function of these parameters acting simultaneously: the resistance of the interface and the patch under the effect of the notch. Hence these levels of resistance condition the mechanism of damage between the propagation of the crack in the plate and the detachment of the patch.