Abstract

The present work aims to predict the behavior of effective elastic properties for laminated composites, considering localized damage in the interface between two layers. In practical terms, the damage in the adhesion, which influences the effective elastic properties of a laminate, is evaluated like a delamination between adjacent layers. Thus, the effective properties of laminated composites with different delamination extensions are calculated via finite element method and two-scale asymptotic homogenization method. It is investigated how the properties of the laminated composites are affected by the delamination extension and the thickness of the interface between layers. It is possible to conclude that the effective coefficient values decrease as the damage extension increases due to the fact that the delamination area increases. Besides, for all effective coefficients, except the effective coefficients C-12*, C-13*, and C-23*, in the case without delamination, the coefficients decrease as the adhesive region thickness increases, and almost all coefficients decrease for complete separation of the interface. Numerical and analytical results are compared in order to show the potentialities and limitations of the proposed approaches. Finally, a numerical approach is used to simulate a specific case, where the interface is considered a functionally graded material.