An approach for dealing with high local stresses in nite element analyses

F. Hlnon
*
, M.R. Wisnom, S.R. Hallett, G. Allegri
Advanced Composites Centre for Innovation and Science, University of Bristol, Queens Building, University Walk, Bristol BS8 1TR, UK
a r t i c l e i n f o
Article history:
Received 2 November 2009
Received in revised form 5 March 2010
Accepted 16 April 2010
Keywords:
C. Finite element analysis (FEA)
A. Laminates
B. Stress concentrations
B. Delamination
a b s t r a c t
Highly localised through-thickness stress concentrations, higher than the strength of the material, may
occur when a linear elastic nite element analysis of a composite structure is performed. Such stresses
may be caused by real geometrical or material discontinuities or by artefacts in the model. The objective
of this paper is to present a validated approach to determine when these high stresses will not lead to
failure by delamination or matrix cracking and can therefore be ignored. Named as the High Stress Con-
centration (HSC) method, the approach presented in this paper is found to provide good results when
applied to several nite element analyses, and is also in agreement with experimental data.
2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
This work addresses the interpretation of nite element analy-
sis results for complex structural components. One of the funda-
mental issues in post-processing data from nite element
analyses is dealing with very high localised stress concentrations
that sometimes arise, see Fig. 1. Are they real, potentially leading
to failure, or do they represent a modelling artefact due, for exam-
ple, to simplications introduced at the meshing stage? This prob-
lem is particularly relevant for complex geometries and material
arrangements in large models. Whenever it is difcult to represent
ne details at a global level, simplifying assumptions must be
adopted. These simplications may lead to highly localised stresses
even for relatively coarse meshes.
Examples of stress concentrations due to simplied geometrical
models include those arising when local curvature radii are ne-
glected and step changes are introduced into the mesh [13].
Material property induced stress concentrations may also occur
when the representative scale adopted in the model is much larger
than the one featuring the change in mechanical properties so that
smooth transitions in the values of the elastic properties are mod-
elled by abrupt changes. A typical case is represented by bre ori-
entations in the corners of composite parts [4]. Such material
property induced stress concentrations also occur at the free lateral
surface of laminated composites due to the well-known free edge
or free corner effect [57]. They are very important as the through
thickness stresses are strongly inuenced by the stacking sequence
[8] and the material property mismatch (coefcient of mutual
inuence, Poissons ratios and coefcient of thermal expansion)
[9].
If high localised stresses are larger than the material strength,
they may lead to the identication of spurious failure modes. Sev-
eral authors have dened rational criteria for assessing their criti-
cality. Whitney and Nuismer [10] proposed both the point stress
criterion and the average stress criterion for assessing the critical-
ity of in-plane stress concentrations in laminated composites con-
taining a notch. Their work has been later extended to free edge
stresses by Kim and Soni [11]. Although easy to use, their approach
assumed the transverse tensile stress to be predominant, the inter-
laminar shear stresses to be zero and a characteristic length which
depends on the material, the overall stacking sequence and the ply
orientation. With the prospect of accounting for the other inter-
laminar stress components and their interaction with the
through-thickness stress, authors like Kim and Soni [12], Brewer
and Lagace [13], Sun and Zhou [14], and Lecuyer and Engrand
[15] have formulated different criteria derived from the Tsai-Wu
criterion [16]. However all of them still require a characteristic dis-
tance for averaging the stresses that has to be determined
empirically.
The post-processing approach presented in this paper circum-
vents the use of any empirically based parameter. Denoted as the
High Stress Concentration (HSC) method, it is inspired by linear
elastic fracture mechanics theory with the scope to help stress
engineers make a rational judgment on the hazard represented
by large localised stress values, regardless of whether they are real
or just modelling artefacts.
The HSC methodology presented in this paper was derived for
engineering design purposes and does not determine any of the
stress intensity factor components from a given nite element
1359-835X/$ - see front matter 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.compositesa.2010.04.014
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +44 117 331 5325; fax: +44 117 927 2771.
E-mail address: Fabrice.Helenon@bristol.ac.uk (F. Hlnon).
Composites: Part A 41 (2010) 11561163
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Composites: Part A
j our nal homepage: www. el sevi er . com/ l ocat e/ composi t esa
model. It consists of comparing the nite element stress eld with
the theoretical values that would occur due to a crack on the point
of propagating at the same location. This represents the worst case
scenario in terms of stress distribution. If the stress levels pre-
dicted by the nite element analysis are below those attained
when the presence of the crack is assumed, then the structural
component is safe and the stress concentration can be ignored. If
the nite element results give stress values above those associated
with a critical crack, then the stress concentration marks the onset
of a real potential failure mode (failure initiation plus instanta-
neous crack propagation) which cannot be ignored in structural
integrity assessments. The comparison between the two stress dis-
tributions is based on plotting their respective elds as functions of
the distance from the tip of the assumed crack.
This paper is structured as follows. First, the background to the
HSC method extracted from linear elastic fracture mechanics is gi-
ven. Then, the methodology for pure mode I/II and for mixed-mode
is presented with validation cases. A unidirectional specimen with
cut central plies and a curved beam specimen with cut plies are
used respectively for pure mode II and for mixed-mode. Finally,
application to a high localised stress concentration occurring at
an interface between dissimilar materials is described, with stres-
ses at the free edge of a quasi-isotropic plate used for validation. In
all of the cases, the approach is shown to give good results which
are in most cases conservative.
2. Background theory
2.1. Assumptions
The HSC method aims to assess high localised stresses in linear
elastic nite element analyses responsible for inter-laminar failure
(delamination) or for matrix cracking if the level of detail in the
model is sufcient. Before introducing the theory with which the
method is dened, it is important to note some assumptions:
(a) The material is orthotropic i.e. composed of one material
only or is considered as being a block of several plies with
arbitrary orientations but entirely homogenised.
(b) The material is assumed to have a linear elastic behaviour
and the conguration allows the use of linear elastic fracture
mechanics. The abstracted inter-laminar crack is therefore
considered as propagating in pure mode I, in mode II or in
mixed-mode loading, see Fig. 2. Mode III is neglected here,
although could also be included in principle.
(c) The mathematical equations involved consider an abstracted
crack on the point of propagating within a single material.
(d) The fracture criterion accounting for the mode-mixity is the
power-law [17,18].
(e) The modes are dened using the primary stress tensor com-
ponents. Indeed, there is a priori no crack physically intro-
duced in the nite element model allowing the usual
denition of the modes according to the crack surface dis-
placements [3,19,20].
Therefore, pure mode I loading is dened locally when the in-
ter-laminar shear stress, s, is zero and the normal through-thick-
ness stress r is positive; pure mode II loading will be dened
locally when the normal through-thickness stress, r, is zero or
compressive. A stress tensor providing both r > 0 and s 0 will
give a local mixed-mode loading condition.
2.2. Stress eld ahead of a crack tip
According to linear elastic fracture mechanics theory and based
on the local axes drawn in Fig. 2, the relevant singular stress eld
ahead of a crack tip within an orthotropic material is given by
[3,2022]:
r
K
I

2pr
p R
I
h; l
1
; l
2
and s
K
II

2pr
p R
II
h; l
1
; l
2
1
where r is the distance from the inter-laminar crack tip, K
I
and K
II
are respectively the mode I and mode II stress intensity factors
dening the crack tip singularity, and r and s are the normal stress
and shear stress components in the xz plane. In the terms
R
I
(h, l
1
, l
2
) and R
II
(h, l
1
, l
2
) which are dened explicitly in
[19,2123], the angle h is given from the x-axis in the xz plane
and the dimensionless parameters l
1
and l
2
are the complex
60
70
80
90
100
110
120
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
Distance [mm]
S
t
r
e
s
s

[
M
P
a
]
Finite element stress distribution
Material strength
High localised
stress
concentration
AA
BB
Selected blocks of materials from
a finite element analysis
Fig. 1. Example of nite element stress distribution with high localised stresses (stress values picked-up along distance AB).
x
z
y
x
z
x
z
a b c
Fig. 2. (a) Crack included into a layer. (b) Mode I surface displacements. (c) Mode II surface displacements.
F. Hlnon et al. / Composites: Part A 41 (2010) 11561163 1157
conjugate pair roots of the characteristic equation that may be writ-
ten for plane stress as:
1
E
x
l
4

1
G
xz

2m
xz
E
x
_ _
l
2

1
E
z
0 2
It is useful to notice that the angular functions R
I
r
h; l
1
; l
2
and
R
II
s
h; l
1
; l
2
equal unity along the interface ahead of the crack tip
where h = 0. Moreover, when the critical conguration is reached,
i.e. when the crack is just on the point of propagating, the stress
intensity factors are equal to their critical values K
Ic
and K
IIc
that
are material properties. As a consequence, Eq. (1) become:
r
c

K
Ic

2pr
p and s
c

K
IIc

2pr
p 3
where respectively r
c
and s
c
are the critical normal and shear stres-
ses. Both equations will be used for dening the critical curves in
the HSC method.
2.3. Relationship between the energy release rate and the stress
intensity factor
According to the crack closure analysis initially provided by Ir-
win [24], the energy release rate can be given as a function of the
stress intensity factor using the following relations for mode I and
mode II [3,2022]:
G
I
a
I
K
2
I
and G
II
a
II
K
2
II
4
The coefcients a
I
and a
II
are dened according to the mode, the
conguration and the material. For plane stress conditions they
are:
a
I

a
11
a
33
2
_
a
33
a
11
_

2a
13
a
55
2a
11
_ _
1=2
and
a
II

a
11

2
p

a
33
a
11
_

2a
13
a
55
2a
11
_ _
1=2
5
where the a
ij
coefcients are the components of the compliance ma-
trix [a] that relates strains {e} to stresses {r} via {e} = [a]{r} i.e.
a
11
= 1/E
x
, a
22
= 1/E
y
, a
33
= 1/E
z
, a
12
= m
xy
/E
x
, a
32
= m
zy
/E
z
, a
13
=
m
xz
/E
x
and a
55
= 1/G
xz
.
2.4. Denition of the equivalent stress
A pure mode I or mode II condition that enables a crack to prop-
agate usually only occurs in particular loading conditions at the
boundary of the structure. Generally, a crack is subject to mixed-
mode loading conditions. It is therefore necessary to account for
this mode-mixity to predict the delamination propagation. Several
empirical laws allow accounting for this combination [3,25]. One of
them is the simple and widely-used power-law energetic mixed-
mode fracture criterion [17,18]:
G
I
G
Ic
_ _
n

G
II
G
IIc
_ _
n
P1 6
in which G
I
and G
II
are the energy release rates for mode I and mode
II respectively and G
Ic
and G
IIc
are their corresponding critical values
which are material properties measured experimentally [20]. Reor-
ganising the different terms and introducing Eq. (4) into this Eq. (6),
it follows:
K
2n
I
g
n
K
2n
II
PK
2n
Ic
with g
G
Ic
G
IIc
a
II
a
I
7
Substituting Eqs. (1), (3), and (5) into the stress intensity factors
from Eq. (7), one obtains:
r
eq
r
2n
g
n
s
2n

1
2n
Pr
c
with g
G
Ic
G
IIc

E
z
E
x

8
The above dened quantity r
eq
is the mode I equivalent stress.
This Eq. (8) means that failure occurs once this mode I equivalent
stress is equal or greater than the pure mode I critical stress de-
ned in Eq. (3). As a consequence, to analyse a mixed-mode load-
ing case, it is sufcient to compare this equivalent stress with the
mode I critical stress only.
2.5. Considerations for stresses along an off-axis direction
The HSC method dened so far works straightforwardly when
assessing stress concentrations in 2D models. For 3D models it is
still straightforwardly applicable provided that the nite element
stresses are picked-up along a direction of orthotropy e.g. along
the local x-axis (b = 0) or y-axis (b = p/2) in Fig. 3. Although not
used in the rest of this paper, the developments in the current sec-
tion are presented here for completeness.
In the case of inter-laminar stresses along an off-axis direction
with an angle b different from any direction of orthotropy, it is nec-
essary to know that angle to plot the critical curve r
c
r; b or
s
c
r; b, as well as the equivalent stress distribution r
eq
b for
mixed-mode. Since determining b may be complicated, the ap-
proach chosen for dealing with an off-axis direction is to consider
the most conservative conguration among all the possible values
of r
c
r; b, s
c
r; b and r
eq
b against b. This is done by nding the
angle b
m
minimising r
c
r; b or s
c
r; b and by nding the angle b
M
maximising r
eq
b.
The lowest critical curve against b dened in Eq. (3), is ob-
tained by minimising the critical stress intensity factor which
may be linked to its corresponding fracture toughness value via
Eq. (4). In the rest of the paper, the inter-laminar fracture tough-
ness is assumed constant against b. Such a hypothesis is reason-
able at this stage even though it has been reported in the
literature that the inter-laminar fracture toughness may vary
against b [26]. Under such conditions, the angle b
m
is obtained
by maximising the coefcient a
I
b or a
II
b respectively for mode
I or mode II against b. Since for any rotation b around the z-axis
the characteristic Eq. (2) holds i.e. the material stays 2D orthotro-
pic within the x z plane even though anisotropic from the
fx; y; zg axes, the expressions of a
I
b and a
II
b are still similar
to Eq. (5) but with the compliance matrix components varying
against b [27,28]:

a
11
b
1
E
x

cos
4
b
E
x

1
G
xy

2m
xy
E
x
_ _
sin
2
b cos
2
b
sin
4
b
E
y
9a
crack
z
xx

crack
x
= z z
x

Fig. 3. Details of the local coordinate systems at the crack tip.

1158 F. Hlnon et al. / Composites: Part A 41 (2010) 11561163

a
13
b
m
xz
E
x

m
xz
E
x
cos
2
b
m
yz
E
y
sin
2
b
_ _
9b

a
33
b
1
E
z

1
E
z
9c

a
55
b
1
G
xz

cos
2
b
G
xz

sin
2
b
G
yz
9d
The highest mode I equivalent stress curve dened in Eq. (8) is
obtained by maximising r
eq
b against b. Since the stress tensor
components are directly picked-up from the nite element mesh,
the only way to dene the most conservative conguration is to
determine the highest value of the parameter g against b which
is the only one dependent on the material properties, see Eq. (8).
By assuming that the fracture toughness and through thickness
Youngs modulus do not vary, the required value of g is obtained
by minimising the longitudinal in-plane Youngs modulus E
x
b de-
ned as [27]:
E
x
b
1
cos
4
b
Ex

1
Gxy

2mxy
Ex
_ _
cos
2
b sin
2
b
sin
4
b
Ey
10
Finally, in Eq. (8), the square of the inter-laminar shear stress is
dened as being s
2
s
2
xz
s
2
yz
.
3. Method for pure mode I/II loading
3.1. Principle
For the case of a pure mode loading analysis, the HSC method is
based on a comparison between the nite element stress distribu-
tion in the neighbourhood of the high localised stress concentra-
tion and a critical curve when the nite element through-
thickness stress component r
F.E.
or the shear stress component
s
F.E.
are above the strengths of the material, r
max
or s
max
, see Fig. 4.
For a pure mode I loading problem, the method compares the
through thickness tensile stress distribution ahead of the localised
stress concentration with the mode I critical stress curve r
c
(r) de-
ned in Eq. (3), see Fig. 2. In the vicinity of the high localised stress
concentration, failure occurs if:
r
F:E:
Pr
c
when r
F:E:
Pr
max
11
In the case of a pure mode II loading problem, the method is
based on comparing the distribution of the absolute value of the
inter-laminar shear stresses in the vicinity of the localised stress
concentration with the mode II critical stress curve s
c
(r) dened
in Eq. (3). In the vicinity of the high localised stress concentration,
failure occurs if:
ks
F:E:
k Ps
c
when ks
F:E:
k Ps
max
12
Any other case that does not meet the criterion given in Eqs.
(11) or (12) leads to a nite element localised stress concentration
that may not be safely ignored. In such a condition, this means that
a crack may initiate and propagate unstably from where the high
localised stress concentration has been observed.
3.2. Validation using a unidirectional ply specimen with cut central
plies
To illustrate and validate the applicability of the method in pure
Mode II loading, a unidirectional glass bre/epoxy test specimen
with cut central plies across its full width in pure tension is consid-
ered, see Fig. 5 [2931]. The design with discontinuous plies leads
to an inter-laminar shear stress concentration near the cut plies.
Very high values above the strength of the material are generated
even at low loads, which could in fact be safely ignored since they
do not lead to immediate failure. However these stresses do lead to
delamination once a critical load is reached. The normal stresses
near the cut are compressive except at the extremity of the cut
plies. Therefore this test can be considered to be a pure mode II
case.
The typical material properties are given in Table 1. To simulate
this specimen by the nite element method, a 2D analysis of a slice
through the thickness was carried out in-plane stress. The mesh
was built with Abaqus/CAE using fully integrated quadratic ele-
ments of type CPS8. Due to the presence of planes of symmetry,
only a quarter-model was used. Four different meshes were built
to assess the inuence of renement when applying the HSC meth-
od close to the cut where high stress gradients were expected. For
each mesh, respectively 1, 2, 4 and 8 elements per ply thickness,
being 0.127 mm thick, were used. In the longitudinal direction,
the region near the cut was subdivided into elements 125, 62.5,
Distance
S
t
r
e
s
s

Crit ical cur ve
Case 2 :
Stresses may
NOT be ignored
Case 1 :
Stresses may
be ignored
Strength of the material
Fig. 4. Principle of the HSC method for a pure mode I or mode II loading problem.
200
50
1
0
4 continuous plies
4 continuous plies
2 cut plies
Fig. 5. Unidirectional test specimen with central cut plies.
Table 1
Thermo-elastic properties of E-Glass/913 epoxy.
E
1
= 43.9 GPa m
23
= 0.45 G
23
= 5.31 GPa a
1
= 6.6 10
6
C
1
E
2
= 15.4 GPa m
13
= 0.30 G
13
= 4.34 GPa a
2
= 30 10
6
C
1
E
3
= 15.4 GPa m
12
= 0.30 G
12
= 4.34 GPa a
3
= 30 10
6
C
1
F. Hlnon et al. / Composites: Part A 41 (2010) 11561163 1159
31.25 and 15.63 lm long in each mesh respectively. A coarser
mesh was then used further away from the cut.
Using a 744 MPa gross section applied tensile stress which is
below the 765 MPa stress value measured at failure, the nite ele-
ment results give the four shear stress curves close to the ply dis-
continuity, Nos. 14 shown in Fig. 6. Curves 14 come from the
coarser mesh to the ner one respectively. Each of them was ob-
tained by picking-up the nite element stress values along the
interface between the continuous and cut plies. The observed peak
of stress is much higher than the inter-laminar shear strength,
s
max
, estimated at 75 MPa [32]. Applying the HSC method using
G
IIc
= 1.08 N/mm [32,33], the result is shown for the 744 MPa ap-
plied gross section tensile stress on the test specimen, see Fig. 6.
All the nite element curves are under the critical curve close to
the stress concentration where the stresses are higher than the
shear strength of the material. Moreover, it was found that the de-
gree of mesh renement is not important since the nite element
curves all follow the critical curve curvature in the region above
the material strength line. Under these conditions, the level of
stresses may be ignored according to the principle of the HSC
method. This is consistent with the experimental results which
showed that the delamination did not propagate until a 765 MPa
average gross stress value, see [29].
4. Method for mixed-mode loading
4.1. Principle
The cases of pure mode I or mode II loading are encountered for
very simple tests only. A general situation may involve both modes
and both stress components r
F.E.
and s
F.E.
occuring at the stress
concentration. To account for the interaction between both these
stresses, the equivalent stress introduced in Eq. (8) is used. For
n = 1, the mode I equivalent nite element stress may be written
as:
r
eq

Maxr
F:E:
; 0
2
gks
F:E:
k
2
_
with g
G
Ic
G
IIc

E
z
E
x

13
It predicts inter-laminar failure once the contribution of the -
nite element normal and shear stress components generate a mode
I equivalent stress which is higher than or equal to the mode I crit-
ical stress of a crack on the point of propagating within the mate-
rial considered. Therefore, applying the HSC methodology, the plot
of the mode I equivalent nite element curve gives one of the two
cases highlighted in Fig. 4.
4.2. Validation using a unidirectional curved beam specimen with cut
plies
The applicability of the method for a mixed-mode problem is
illustrated by considering a unidirectional glass bre/epoxy resin
curved beam in four-point bending, see Fig. 7. This kind of geome-
try with and without cut plies across the width has been studied
extensively by Wisnom and co-workers, see [3034] for more de-
tails. This test produces theoretically a pure bending moment over
the inner span. The material properties are given in Table 1. The
lay-up is 0
6
=

0
4
=0
22
from the lowermost to the uppermost ply
with a bar indicating the selected plies cut.
Linear elastic nite element simulations were performed using
a plane stress model of the half geometry. Five different meshes
were built with Abaqus/CAE using fully integrated quadratic ele-
ments of type CPS8 to assess the inuence of the renement when
applying the HSC method. A 58 N load per unit width on the upper
roller has been applied. This value is equivalent to a 1740 Nmm
bending moment per unit width which is lower than the experi-
mental 1802 Nmm bending moment measured at failure [30,32].
To account for the expected high stress concentration, a ne mesh
was used in the vicinity of the cut plies. In each of the ve meshes,
respectively 4, 8, 16, 32 and 160 elements per ply of size 31.25,
15.62, 7.81, 3.91 and 0.78 lm in the radial direction and approxi-
mately 27.5, 13.74, 6.87, 3.44 and 0.34 lm in the circumferential
direction were used. In the region far from the cut, a coarse mesh
was used to reduce the number of degrees of freedom in the whole
of the numerical system to be solved.
Results indicated that an extreme mesh renement is required
to get a smooth stress distribution in the region above the material
0
100
200
300
400
500
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
Distance (mm)
S
h
e
a
r

s
t
r
e
s
s

(
M
P
a
)
Mesh No.1
Mesh No.2
Mesh No.3
Mesh No.4
Mode II critical curve
Shear strength
Fig. 6. Finite element curves from mesh No. 1 (coarse) to mesh No. 4 (rened)
for a 744 MPa applied gross section stress versus the critical shear stress curve.
R10
R10 R10
R10
60
120
R8
R6
4 cut plies
R6
4 cut plies
Fig. 7. Curved beam specimen dimensions (mm) and location of the upper and lower interfaces subjected to delamination.
1160 F. Hlnon et al. / Composites: Part A 41 (2010) 11561163
strength line. They showed two high localised stress concentration
phenomena, one at the upper interface subjected to delamination
and the other at lower one, the former being more important than
the later. Applying the HSC method using G
Ic
= 0.25 N/mm and
G
IIc
= 1.08 N/mm [32,33], the result at the lower interface indicates
that failure would not be expected at an applied bending moment
per unit width of 1740 Nmm, see Fig. 8. The ner nite element
curve from mesh No. 5 is just under the critical one, indicating that
the specimen is very close to failure. The very high stresses that
would still be present at slightly lower loads may therefore be ig-
nored. It is worth noting that the use of any of the coarser meshes
Nos. 14 would predict a failed specimen because their nite ele-
ment curves all cross the critical curve. It was also found that the
coarser the mesh the higher the level of conservativeness. This
means that a conservative assessment may be obtained even with
a relatively coarse mesh.
5. Method for high localised stresses between dissimilar
material
5.1. Principle
There are often high localised stresses at the free edge of a multi
material interface for general lay-ups modelled on a ply-level basis
[35] or in nite element models using blocks of dissimilar materi-
als [4]. This is due for example to the mismatch of Poissons ratio
and coefcient of thermal expansion. Since the considerations (c)
and (d) made in Section 2.1 no longer hold because the assumed
inter-laminar crack is no longer within a single material, it is nec-
essary to reconsider the denition of the critical curve, see Eq. (3).
Many authors have addressed the theoretical problem of an
interface crack between two bonded dissimilar homogeneous iso-
tropic [3640], orthotropic and anisotropic materials [38,4146].
In all of these developments, inspired by Williams pioneering
work [47], they have found the presence of an oscillating singular-
ity of the stress eld of the form r
ie
conned very near to the crack
tip. In addition, they have found the stress intensity factor to be a
complex number and to be determined using an arbitrary charac-
teristic length parameter. Because of the mathematical complexity
of the equations, a reasonable way of applying the HSC method to a
bi-material interface for engineering purposes is to consider only a
mixed-mode loading condition whose level of conservatism is the
highest. This is achieved by selecting the material, matA or matB,
giving the lowest mode I critical curve i.e. by plotting:
r
c

1

2pr
p min K
matA
Ic
; K
matB
Ic
_ _
14
and by selecting the material giving the highest equivalent stress
curve for mixed-mode i.e. by plotting:
r
eq

Maxr
F:E:
; 0
2
gks
F:E:
k
2
_
where
g Max
G
matA
Ic
G
matA
IIc

E
matA
z
E
min
x

matA

;
G
matB
Ic
G
matB
IIc

E
matB
z
E
min
x

matB
_ _
15
The material strength line to be plotted is the one from the low-
er material transverse tensile strength between matA and matB.
For an off-axis direction different from any axis of orthotropy,
the same approach presented in Section 2.5 holds.
5.2. Validation using a (45/0/90)
S
quasi-isotropic plate
The case chosen for demonstrating the applicability of the HSC
method at a bi-material interface is a (45/0/90)
S
quasi-isotropic
plate loaded in pure tension whose lay-up and dimensions are gi-
ven in Fig. 9. It is made of HTA/922, a carbon/epoxy prepreg, whose
typical material properties are given in Table 2. Its length L is such
that the thickness and the width are negligible in comparison. Each
ply is nominally 0.125 mm thick. Under such conditions, it is pos-
sible to model a slice of the plate assuming generalised plane
strain, see Fig. 9, accounting for the half thickness because of the
symmetry. Provided that the 45 plies are modelled by using an
equivalent orthotropic material, so-called here Equiv45, a plane
of symmetry can also be introduced across the width. Failure oc-
curred by delamination between the 0 and the 90 plies once
the experimentally measured overall longitudinal deformation,
e
xx
, reached 0.75% [48].
Four different nite element meshes of the slice were built with
Abaqus/CAE by using fully integrated elements of type C3D20 to
investigate its inuence when applying the proposed HSC method
to assess the criticality of the high stresses at the 0/90 bi-material
interface. One element per ply was used, but the free edge was
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1
Distance (mm)
S
t
r
e
s
s

(
M
P
a
)
Mesh No.1
Mesh No.2
Mesh No.3
Mesh No.4
Mesh No.5
Critical curve
Fig. 8. Equivalent stresses distributions at the lower interface susceptible to
delamination from mesh No. 1 (coarse) to mesh No. 5 (ner) at the upper interface
versus the mode I critical curve for a 1740 N mm/mm per unit width applied
bending moment.
+ 45
- 45
90 1 mm
0.1 mm
x
z
Equiv45
Plane of symmetry
Plane of symmetry
0
20 mm
Fig. 9. Illustration of the considered generalised plane strain geometric approach.
Table 2
Thermo-elastic properties of HTA/922.
E
1
= 140.77 GPa m
23
= 0.43 G
23
= 3.10 GPa a
1
= -0.5 10
6
C
1
E
2
= 8.85 GPa m
13
= 0.28 G
13
= 4.59 GPa a
2
= 37.5 10
6
C
1
E
3
= 8.85 GPa m
12
= 0.28 G
12
= 4.59 GPa a
3
= 37.5 10
6
C
1
F. Hlnon et al. / Composites: Part A 41 (2010) 11561163 1161
more rened with respectively for each mesh 3, 4, 7 and 8 ele-
ments per ply because of the high stress gradients expected in this
zone due to the free edge effect [5,7]. The element size across the
width was for each mesh respectively 83, 40, 20 and 10 lm near
to the edge. Symmetric boundary conditions were applied at the
bottom and on the centre of the slice model. The nodes on the left
hand side plane are constrained in the x-direction whilst MPCs
were applied on the opposite right hand side plane to model the
generalised plane strain condition. After analysing the model by
the nite element method, it was found that the most critical stress
tensor components were both the through-thickness stress r
zz
and
the inter-laminar shear stress s
yz
in the neighbourhood of the free
edge at the 0/90 interface for a uniform 402 MPa applied tensile
stress r
xx
corresponding to the 0.75% strain measured at failure,
see Fig. 10.
To apply the HSC method, the critical curve has to be plotted.
The typical fracture toughness values to be used are G
Ic
= 0.15 N/
mm and G
IIc
= 0.51 N/mm for the material considered. By comput-
ing the critical stress intensity factors K
Ic
for both the 0 and the
90 plies it is found that the 0 ply gives the lowest critical curve,
see Fig. 11. By combining the picked-up stresses into equivalent
stresses at each point of the selected inter-laminar line from the
free edge, it is found that the material properties from the 0 ply
give the highest nite element curves. This was as expected since
the ratio a
II
/a
I
= E
z
/E
x
, see Eq. (11), is equal to 1 which is higher
than the one for an orthotropic material where E
x
> E
z
. In contrast
to the maximum stress at the free edge it was found that a con-
verged solution is obtained with mesh renement if one considers
the intersection point between the critical curve and the material
strength line. This is achieved by the level of renement shown
in mesh 4. This nite element curve is found to be 8.3% below this
intersection point (distance: 0.05 mm) which can still be consid-
ered a reasonably accurate result, especially considering the engi-
neering nature of the HSC method. It is perhaps also important to
recall that the fracture toughness values used were measured from
a unidirectional HTA/922 specimen whereas here they have been
applied to a bi-material interface. It has been shown [26] that frac-
ture toughness values may indeed vary from unidirectional results
at bi-material interfaces. As with previous examples shown, it can
be seen that the level of conservatism increases with a less rened
mesh for the assessment of the high free edge stresses at a bi-
material interface.
6. Conclusion
A methodology allowing the assessment of the criticality of high
localised stress concentrations in linear elastic nite element anal-
yses has been dened. Based on linear fracture mechanics theory
for orthotropic materials, it aims to help stress engineers design
complex composite structural components by identifying when
high inter-laminar stresses in a nite element analysis can be
safely ignored. Applications to some nite element test cases have
proved the approach to give very good results. Mode II was vali-
dated by using a unidirectional specimen with cut central plies
loaded in tension and mixed-mode was validated by using a unidi-
rectional curved beam specimen with cut plies under a four-point
bending load. The extension to the case of a high localised stress
occurring at a bi-material interface gave satisfactory results vali-
dated by using a (45/0/90)
S
quasi-isotropic plate in tension.
The next step is to present an extension of the HSC method to
fatigue loading.
Acknowledgement
The authors would like to acknowledge Rolls-Royce Plc for their
support of this research.
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