Damage modelling of SCRIMP woven roving laminated beams subjected to transverse shear

Prediction of damage in composite structures is vital for assessing their tolerance to overstressing under various loading conditions. This paper presents a study on progressive damage prediction of a woven roving E-glass/vinyl ester laminated beam subjected to transverse shear. The laminated beam has been manufactured using a novel vacuum assisted resin transfer mould (VARTM) technique known as the Seeman Composite Resin Infusion Moulding Process (SCRIMP). Damage modelling has been conducted using a finite element model capable of modelling damage progression and residual capacity. A user-subroutine for Abaqus/Standard has been developed for this purpose. Various failure criteria and modelling techniques using both shell and solid finite elements are investigated and good correlation has been obtained with test observations. The effects of discretizing the woven roving layers to unidirectional layers to model matrix cracking are reported. The inclusion of resin rich layers between laminated plies that act as delamination layers in the present model has improved the correlation with test data and their detrimental effects have been discussed. The need for further work has also been identified to provide a more robust technique to improve damage predictions.