Determination of material properties for ANSYS progressive damage analysis of laminated composites

A method is presented to calculate the material parameters required by the progressive damage analysis (PDA) material-model in ANSYS®. The proposed method is based on fitting results calculated with PDA to experimental data by using Design of Experiments and Direct Optimization. The method uses experimental modulus-reduction vs. strain data for only two laminates to fit all the parameters required by PDA transverse/shear damage mode. Fitted parameters are then used to predict and compare with the experimental response of other laminates. Mesh sensitivity of PDA is studied by performing p- and h-mesh refinement. PDA can then be used to predict the response with damage evolution of any layup.