Progressive damage modelling in carbon fibre-reinforced materials under various loading conditions: a comparison study

Carbon Fibre-Reinforced Materials (CFRM) are used in automotive, aerospace, building material and other fields. In application of CFRMs, various damage initiation criteria and evolution laws have been continuously proposed. In this study, Hashin's, Chang's and Linde's damage initiation criteria, and linear and exponential damage evolution laws were studied and the performances of their different combinations on simulating damage of CFRM were compared under the Open-Hole Tension (OHT), Open-Hole Compression (OHC) and low-speed impact conditions. Results showed good performance was made by (1) Hashin's damage initiation criterion + the exponential damage evolution law; (2) Linde's damage initiation criterion + the linear damage evolution law and (3) Chang's damage initiation criterion + the exponential damage evolution law. Using a Gross Correlation Index (GCI) to evaluate the overall performance of the six combinations, Chang's damage initiation criterion + the exponential damage evolution law ranks the best, revealing their wider applicability.