Numerical study on failure behavior of open-hole composite laminates based on LaRC criterion and extended finite element method

A new numerical model combining LaRC failure criterion and extended finite element method (XFEM) is created to describe the failure behavior in fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) composites. In this model, the onset of intralaminar damages are predicted based on the LaRC failure criterion, and the crack propagation and stiffness degradation are described explicitly by the XFEM. The user subroutine UDMGINI of ABAQUS defines the initial damage criterion and a mixed-mode, energy-based fracture criterion is employed to describe the crack onset and propagation in the enriched region of XFEM. The proposed model is used to investigate the failure behavior of two sets of open-hole laminates under tension. It is demonstrated that the proposed numerical method can predict the experimental data well.