Adaptive hierarchical enrichment for delamination fracture using a decohesive zone model

The paper describes a method for modelling delamination in bre-reinforced composite structures with the aid of a decohesive zone model and interface elements. Unless a ne mesh is provided, the resulting load=de ection responses are very non-smooth and the iterative non-linear solution procedure may fail. To overcome this problem, the elements around the softening process zone are enriched with hierarchical polynomial functions. The enriched zones change as the analysis proceeds and the cracks propagate. This procedure is implemented using a technique which continually modi es the boundary conditions