Intraply Fracture in Fiber-Reinforced Composites: A Peridynamic Analysis

In fiber reinforced composites (FRCs), microcracks often initiate at the interface between fibers and the matrix, or from pores in the matrix. With an explicit microstructure representation, a peridynamic model can simulate the initiation, growth, and coalescence of intraply microcracks into macrocracks in the transverse loading of a FRC. The size of the simulated sample, in this case, is limited by the computational cost. For lamina-level simulations, we employ a homogenization strategy for the transversely loaded FRC with a peridynamic model, the Intermediately Homogenized Peridynamic (IH-PD) model for two-phase composites. We compare our results with three-point bending experiments from the literature. The results show that the IH-PD model mimics the tortuous crack path observed experimentally, without having to rely on the detailed microstructure. Moreover, the IH-PD results for the load versus crack opening displacement match very well the experimentally measured data.