Modelling fatigue delamination growth in fibre-reinforced composites: Power-law equations or artificial neural networks?

Giuliano Allegri*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticle (Academic Journal)peer-review

30 Citations (Scopus)
419 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

This paper discusses two alternative modelling approaches for describing fatigue delamination growth (FDG) in polymer-based fibre-reinforced composites, i.e. semi-empirical equations having a power-law form and artificial neural networks. Barenblatt's self-similarity principles are applied for identifying a suitable expression of the delamination driving force in terms of the square-rooted energy-release-rate range and the associated peak values. The general dependency of pre-factors and exponents of FDG power-laws on the stress-ratio and mode-mixity is discussed in detail. Single-hidden-layer neural networks (SHLNN) with the support of self-similarity principles are here proposed as an alternative to semi-empirical power laws for describing FDG in composites. A example application of SHLNN to mixed-mode and variable stress-ratio FDG is provided for the carbon/epoxy system T800H/#3631. The SHLNN predictions are compared to a semi-empirical fit based on a modified Hartman-Schijve power-law.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)59-70
Number of pages12
JournalMaterials and Design
Volume155
Early online date26 May 2018
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 5 Oct 2018

Keywords

  • Artificial neural networks
  • Composites
  • Delamination
  • Fatigue

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