APPLICATION OF A MULTISCALE COHESIVE ZONE METHOD TO MODEL COMPOSITE MATERIALS

One of the major problems in failure analysis of composite materials is how to accurately describe interfacial material properties and related interface constitutive modeling at the nanoscale, mesoscale, and macroscale. In this work, we have applied a recently developed multiscale cohesive zone method to model composite materials and, subsequently, we have simulated the failure process of laminar composites. We have shown that the multiscale cohesive zone method can adequately describe mesoscale interface material properties such as interface strength, microstructures, and possible defects or damage. Moreover, we have applied the multiscale cohesive zone model to simulate spall fracture in composite materials induced by high-speed impacts. Simulations of different fracture patterns for composite materials with defects are also presented.