Numerical Modeling of Woven Carbon Composite Failure

This paper presents application of a MLT-based (Matzenmiller, Lubliner, Taylor) approach to model damage in woven carbon composite materials. The MLT formulation has been adapted to shell elements to model individual composite plies. The implementation of the model is discussed along with simple test cases to demonstrate the material response and limitations within the original MLT model. One of these limitations has been addressed through implementation of different damage parameters for tensile and compressive loading. In addition, this damage-based approach has been modified by the use of a non-local damage treatment to distribute accumulated damage across element boundaries. Application of this model to simple test cases indicates that the model demonstrates expected behaviour.