Determination of material properties for progressive damage analysis of carbon/epoxy laminates

Progressive damage analysis is a constitutive model available in Abaqus(TM) to predict damage initiation and evolution in laminated composite materials but no standards are available to obtain the required material properties. A novel methodology is proposed to determine the material properties for carbon/polymer composites, relying on crack-density data. Since PDA does not predict crack density, direct correlation of data with PDA predictions is not possible. Therefore, another constitutive model is used to estimate modulus-reduction as a function of measured crack density. Then, PDA material properties are determined using the calculated modulus-reduction data. Applicability to several material systems is presented.