Issue 56

A. Mohamed Ben Ali et alii, Frattura ed Integrità Strutturale, 56 (2021) 229-239; DOI: 10.3221/IGF-ESIS.56.19

Computation of mode I Strain Energy Release Rate of symmetrical and asymmetrical sandwich structures using mixed finite element

Mohamed Ben Ali Amina Civil Engineering department, University of August 20, 1955, Skikda, Algeria. benaliamina21@gmail.com Bouziane Salah, Bouzerd Hamoudi Civil Engineering department, University of August 20, 1955, Skikda, Algeria. Laboratory of Civil Engineering and Hydraulics, University of May 8, 1945, Guelma, Algeria.

bouziane_21@yahoo.fr, http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0831-1167 bib_ham@yahoo.fr, http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8216-2980

A BSTRACT . The use of composite materials is on the rise in different engineering fields. The main advantage of these materials for the aerospace industry being their low weight for excellent mechanical qualities. The analysis of failure modes, such as delamination, of these materials has received great attention from researchers. This paper proposes a method to evaluate the mode I Strain Energy Release Rate (SERR) of sandwich structures. This method associates a two-dimensional mixed finite element with virtual crack extension technique for the analysis of interfacial delamination of sandwich beams. The cases of a symmetrical Double Cantilever Beam (DCB) and a asymmetrical Double Cantilever Beam (UDCB) have been analyzed in this study. The comparison of the results obtained by this method with those found in the literature shows efficiency and good precision for the calculation of Strain Energy Release Rate (SERR). K EYWORDS . Numerical modelling; Cracking; Mixed finite element; Sandwich structures; Strain energy release rate.

Citation: Mohamed Ben Ali, A., Bouziane, S., Bouzerd, H., Computation of mode I strain energy release rate of symmetric and asymmetrical sandwich structures using mixed finite element, Frattura ed Integrità Strutturale, 56 (2021) 229-239.

Received: 16.02.2021 Accepted: 22.03.2021 Published: 01.04.2021

Copyright: © 2021 This is an open access article under the terms of the CC-BY 4.0, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

I NTRODUCTION

andwich structures offers a lot of advantages in many applications ranging from satellites, aircraft, ships, automobiles, rail cars, wind energy systems, and bridge construction to mention only a few. Due to the need of developing new materials with high performance and low-weight their use continues to increase rapidly. Sandwich structures have two stiff, strong skins separated by a low stiffness core. Their concepts have an excellent construction technique which combines weight with rigidity and strength. S

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