Progressive Damage Modeling of Plain-Weave Composites using LS-Dyna Composite Damage Model MAT162

Progressive damage of plain weave S-2 Glass/SC15 composites under in-plane tension, compression, and shear, through-thickness tension and compression, and transverse interlaminar and punch shear loading is presented for a unit single element using the MAT162 composite damage model in LSDyna. While the detail formulation of the MAT162 material model can be found in the Keyword user's manual [1], the main objective of this paper is to describe a methodology to determine a set of softening parameters using a unit single element analysis. The analytical formulation of post-yield damage softening is presented with stress-strain behavior of a single element under different loading conditions. Since MAT162 uses four different softening parameters, i.e., AM1 and AM2 for fiber damage along material directions 1 and 2, AM3 for fiber shear and crush, and AM4 for matrix crack and delamination; the choice of a set of these four AM values is not obvious. The stress-strain plots presented in this paper will serve as an additional user guide to select a set of AM values for a specific material and a specific application.