Crack-inclusion interaction in composite materials with aerospace and offshore engineering applications

Abstract

Composite materials have been widely used in many industries as its multiple mechanical properties that provide a better performance in engineering applications. Cracks and inclusion are often occurred together and are influence by each of them. When an inclusion has a relatively different young’s modulus is occurred in a plate, the crack which occurs and propagates to reach the inclusion material would either stop or continue propagating. The distance between the crack tip and inclusion can determine the stress intensity factor (SIF) which help to predict propagation of crack. The project is using Ansys software to simulate a two-dimensional model, which only focus on plane strain. This assumption has been simplified the equations and complexity of problems leading to a more manageable and accurate solutions.