Delamination characteristics of glare laminates containing doubler and splice features under high cycle fatigue loading

A modified cohesive zone model (CZM) has been developed to simulate damage initiation and evolution in Glare ™ Fibre - Metal Laminate (FML) specimens containing both splice and doubler features under high - cycle fatigue load ing. The model computes the cohesive stiffness degradation un der mixed - mode loading based on user - defined crack growth rate data and is implemented in a VUMAT subroutine for the FE A software Abaqus/Explicit. To validate the model experimental data has been ob tained for a number of Glare 4B specimens containing splice and doubler features monitored using digital ima ge correlation (DIC) to provide full - field displacement and strain data and Acoustic Emission (AE) monitoring to detect damage initiation and pro pagation. The model was used to predict the initiation and growth of damage in splice joints under quasi - static loading. The results were verified against the cohesive zone model available in Abaqus and then validated against experimental data on Glare spe cimens. The codes are currently being extended to incorporate a mixed - mode fatigue damage evolution model based on input Paris laws, which have been extracted from high cycle fatigue experiments on Glare specimens containing both splice and doubler joint