Energy based collocation method to predict progressive damage behavior of imperfect composite plates under compression

Abstract A new collocation methodology is presented to predict failure and progressive damage behavior of composite plates in this paper. The present work deals with composite plates containing initial geometric imperfections and different boundary conditions under uniaxial in-plane compressive load. In the present study, the domain is discretized with Legendre-Gauss-Lobatto nodes and the approximation of displacement fields is performed by Legendre Basis Functions (LBFs). The onset of damage and damage evolution are predicted by Hashin’s failure criteria and by proposed material degradation models. Three geometric degradation models are also assumed to estimate the degradation zone around the failure location which are named complete, region and node degradation models.