Peridynamic Modeling of Laminated Composites

Damage growth in composites involves complex and progressive failure modes. Current computational tools are incapable of predicting failure in composite materials in a unified manner mainly due to their mathematical structure. However, the peridynamic (PD) theory removes these obstacles by taking into account nonlocal interactions between material points. The PD theory simply replaces the displacement derivatives in the equilibrium equations. The PD enables the modeling of progressive failure during deformation through the removal of nonlocal PD interactions (bonds). These bonds enable the interaction of material points within each ply as well as their interaction with other material points in the adjacent plies. The solution continues by using standard explicit time integration techniques until final failure. This chapter presents PD modeling approaches namely bond-based, ordinary state-based, and PD differential operator for predicting progressive damage in fiber-reinforced composite materials under general loading conditions. The predictions from the PD models agree with the experimental observations published in the literature.