Modeling fatigue-driven delamination using a thick level set interface model

This paper presents a new discontinuous damage model for simulating fatigue-driven delamination in composites. Fatigue models commonly describe crack growth using the Paris law which provides the link between the energy released due to delamination and the crack growth rate. A core issue in implementing the Paris law is to accurately compute the energy release rate. In common cohesive fatigue models the energy release rate is extracted locally from the cohesive law where improving the accuracy of computed energy release rate needs extra treatments. The new fatigue model proposed in this paper provides an accurate non-local method for extracting the energy release rate based on the thick level set approach. This model also profits from the kinematic capabilities of interface elements for modeling discontinuities along the interface. The model is validated by comparing the model predictions under different fracture modes with theoretical and experimental data which shows good agreement in all cases.