Session: Research Posters

Paper Number: 173688

Layer-Wise Phase Field Modeling : Revolutionizing Damage Prediction in Laminated Composite Structures 

Engineering structures exhibit sharp crack initiation and propagation upon application of load due to presence of flaws or stress-concentration sites. This sharp crack interface can be regularized with a diffuse band using phase field approach (Bourdin et al., 2000). Phase field modeling of fracture in isotropic plates and shells has been done using either Kirchoff love shell kinematics (Kiendl et al., 2016), or Reissner Mindlin shell theory (Kikis et al., 2021), a higher order plate theory (Raghu et al., 2020) with constant phase field across the thickness of the structure. The crack propagation in both in-plane and thickness directions is modeled using a 2D Kirchoff-love shell theory for displacement field and a 3D theory for phase field in isotropic plates (Ambati et al., 2022) and a 1D Euler Bernoulli beam theory for displacement field combined with a 2D theory for phase field (Xu et al., 2024).

Fiber reinforced laminated composite plates and shells are used in aerospace structures, automobiles, pressure vessels, etc. Phase field modeling of fracture in these structures with transversely isotropic layers stacked over each other is still a challenging task. A phase field model to capture both in-plane and through the thickness crack propagation in laminated composite plates and shells subjected to transverse loading conditions (for instance in aircraft wings, wind turbine blades) is not available in the literature. To alleviate this shortcoming, we propose a layer-wise phase field model to capture fiber orientation dependent damage propagation in each layer of the laminated composite plate. The governing equations are solved using finite element method coupled with Newton-Raphson iterative method. A staggered approach is adopted in which the displacement field and the phase field of the plate are solved alternately.

Using three dimensional elements for modeling displacement field of the laminated composite plate is computationally inefficient. Therefore, the displacement field of the plate is modeled using a higher order plate theory with thickness stretch and zig-zag terms. The zig-zag terms ensure the slope discontinuity of in-plane displacements as observed in 3D elasticity solutions of laminated composite plates. The proposed framework is implemented in open-source finite element platform FEniCS where the mid-plane of the plate is discretized to solve for displacement field and mid-plane of each layer is discretized to solve for phase field. The framework is able to capture layer-wise damage propagation in laminated composite plates and exhibits significant advancement over the current methods. The predictive capabilities of the proposed framework will be presented in our poster presentation during the conference.

 

Presenting Author: Shubham Rai Indian Institute of Technology Delhi

Presenting Author Biography: Mr. Shubham Rai is a Prime Minister's Research Fellow (PMRF) pursuing Ph.D. from theDepartment of Applied Mechanics, IIT Delhi, New Delhi, India under the supervision of Prof.B.P. Patel.
He carries a rich blend of good academics and professional experience with a B.Tech. inMechanical Engineering (2018 batch) from J.C. Bose University of Science and TechnologyYMCA, Faridabad, Haryana, India. He has also worked as a Territory Service Manager, NexaChannel, Maruti Suzuki India Ltd. in Mumbai, India.
His research interests are non-linear finite element method, continuum damage mechanics,phase field modeling of fracture, fiber reinfored composites and computational mechanics.

Authors:

Shubham Rai Indian Institute of Technology Delhi
Abhinav Gupta Vanderbilt University
Badri Prasad Patel Indian Institute of Technology Delhi
Ravindra Duddu Vanderbilt University