Contact analysis for fiber-reinforced, delaminated laminates with kinematic nonlinearity

A macro-micro analytical approach for the anti-penetrating contact problem at the interfaces of the delamination in symmetrically cross-plied, fiber-reinforced rectangular laminates is presented in this paper. The laminate is simply supported and subjected to a uniform transverse load with a through-width delamination buried at the center position. A contact factor is defined to characterize the contact effect and determined using the micro-mechanics of composite material. By analyzing the kinematics of nonlinear deformation at the interfaces of the delamination, the contact force is derived. Asymptotic solutions from perturbation analysis are presented. It is found that the deformation of the laminate involves a global deflection and a local buckling. The anti-penetrating contact effects are characterized by the local buckling and are intrinsic properties of the laminates, relying only on the geometries of the delamination and the material properties. Parametric analyses show that the location and size of the contact areas and the distribution of the contact force are hardly affected by the aspect ratio.