A mesh independent interface technology for simulation of mixed-mode delamination growth in laminated composites

An effective interface element technology is presented for connecting and simulating crack growth between independently modeled finite element subdomains (e.g., composite plies). This method has been developed using penalty constraints and allows coupling of finite element models whose nodes do not necessarily coincide along their common interface. Additionally, the present formulation leads to a computational approach that is very efficient and completely compatible with existing commercial software. The present interface element has been implemented in the commercial finite element code ABAQUS as a user element subroutine (UEL), making it easy to test the approach for a wide range of prob…

Finite-Element Interface Technology for Modeling Delamination Growth in Composite Structures