Delamination Growth Behaviour in Carbon/Epoxy Composite Road Wheel of an Armoured Fighting Vehicle Under Dynamic Load

The primary objective of this paper is to find the threshold size of delamination as well as critical delamination location for composite road wheel of the Armoured Fighting Vehicle (AFV) under severe loading condition to which an AFV is subjected to, during the operation. The composite material considered in the study is carbon/epoxy composite (AS4/3501-6). Finite element analysis was performed using Ansys Workbench 17.2 to predict the delamination location and to study the delamination growth behaviour. The delamination onset spot was predicted using the stress-based failure criteria developed by Puck. Various delamination sizes were modelled at the critical location and the Strain Energy Release Rate (SERR) with respect to the fracture modes, viz., mode I, mode II and mode III were found using Virtual Crack Closure Technique (VCCT). The 3D failure criterion which was developed based on Benzeggagh–Kenane (B-K) mixed-mode I and II failure criterion was employed to predict the delamination growth based on which the threshold delamination size was found.