Modelling compression behaviour of delaminated composite panels

In this work, a numerical tool was developed to take into account the fundamental phenomena involved in the compressive behaviour of composite panels with through-the-width and embedded delaminations. The modified virtual crack closure technique was applied to evaluate the delamination growth phenomenon. Stable and unstable propagations were considered in our analyses; the latter required some modifications in the numerical non-linear algorithm used in the analyses. First of all, a comparison with experimental data was performed to test the effectiveness of the numerical tool; then, a sensitivity analysis was introduced to underline the influence of delaminationsʹ position along the thickness and their growth on the compressive behaviour.