An engineering solution for mesh size effects in the simulation of delamination using cohesive zone models

A methodology to determine the constitutive parameters for the simulation of progressive delamination is proposed. The procedure accounts for the size of a cohesive finite element and the length of the cohesive zone to ensure the correct dissipation of energy. In addition, a closed-form expression for estimating the minimum penalty stiffness necessary for the constitutive equation of a cohesive finite element is presented. It is shown that the resulting constitutive law allows the use of coarser finite element meshes than is usually admissible, which renders the analysis of large-scale progressive delamination problems computationally tractable.