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Buckling analysis of a laminated composite

plate with delaminations using the enhanced
assumed strain solid shell element

Article in Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology May 2012

DOI: 10.1007/s12206-012-0829-1

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 Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology 26 (10) (2012) 3213~3221
www.springerlink.com/content/1738-494x
DOI 10.1007/s12206-012-0829-1

Buckling analysis of a laminated composite plate with delaminations using

the enhanced assumed strain solid shell element
Abdessalem Hajlaoui, Abdessalem Jarraya*, Imen Kallel-Kamoun and Fakhreddine Dammak
Research Unit of Mechanical, Modelisation and Manufacturing Unit (U2MP), National School of Engineers of Sfax,
University of Sfax, B.P.1173, 3038 Sfax, Tunisia

(Manuscript Received October 15, 2011; Revised April 10, 2012; Accepted May 24, 2012)

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Abstract

The paper deals with the validation of a recently proposed hexahedral solid-shell finite element in the buckling analysis of a laminated
composite plate with delaminations. The object is to study the buckling behavior of structures with delaminations using the enhanced
assumed strain (EAS) solid shell element with 5, 7 and 9 parameters. The EAS three-dimensional finite element formulation presented in
this paper is free from shear locking and leads to accurate results for distorted element shapes. The developed FE model is used to study
the effects of some parameters in the buckling load, such as the stacking sequences, delamination size, aspect ratio, width-to-thickness
ratio. The feasibility of the proposed method is confirmed by numerical examples. Results show that using hexahedral solid-shell finite
element in the buckling analysis is more efficient than using the enhanced solid finite element.

Keywords: Laminated composite structures; Local buckling; Through-the-width delamination; Solid-shell finite element
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

number of layers [5-7].

1. Introduction
Although the HSDT presents a good description of the dis-
It is well known that delamination is one of the most fre- placement and stress field in isotropic or low modulus ratio, it
quent causes of failure in laminated composite structures and may not give accurate results for significant modulus ratio.
may lead to a significant reduction in their stiffness and load- It is found that Zig-Zag [8, 9] or layerwise models [10, 11]
carrying capacity, especially when they are subjected to in- can provide better solutions for such a requirement. These
plane compression and shearing. The delaminations may oc- models are always reduced surface models of plate and shell
cur as a result of initial imperfections, in service damages and type. They become complicated with the presence of delami-
high stress concentration in the area of geometric or material nation. However, the use of solid shell formalism with three-
discontinuities. Moreover, under in-plane compression, the dimensional aspect used to study delamination problem be-
delamination may grow rapidly, which can lead to a global came easier. The use of these elements make raises locking
structural failure. problems: volumetric and transverse shear locking.
In recent years many studies have been devoted to under- The study of composite structure with delamination is per-
stand the behavior of laminates with delaminations under formed using reduced plate and shell. We intend to study these
buckling and post-buckling states, including analytical, nu- problems using solid shell elements.
merical and experimental studies. In some of these works the Several techniques have been proposed to overcome this
effect of extension-bending coupling [1-3] as well as the problem, with the most successful of them classified as mixed
transverse shear deformation [4] on the buckling and post- methods. For these formulations, independent field assump-
buckling of delaminated composites is considered. To model tions for strain, stress and/or incompatible displacements can
the layered structures, several approaches have been proposed be assumed, and afterwards introduced into corresponding
such as equivalent singular layer model like the first order functional. These methods lead to procedures such as assumed
shear deformable theory and the higher order shear deform- natural strain (ANS) approach [12] and the EAS formulation
able theory (HSDT), which can easily be implanted and the [13]. With the latter approach, the EAS method volumetric
required number of degrees of freedom is independent of the and transverse shear locking can be avoided and a good accu-
*
Corresponding author. Tel.: +21620290035, Fax.: +21674666535 racy is achieved even with distorted element shapes [14].
E-mail address: abdessalem.jarraya@enis.rnu.tn
The solid shell formulation has been used in several fields.
Recommended by Associate Editor Jun-Sik Kim
KSME & Springer 2012 Except the study of the buckling of laminated composite plate
3214 A. Hajlaoui et al. / Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology 26 (10) (2012) 3213~3221

with delaminations, due to its poor performance and the ap- Reducing the number of independent variables in the origi-
pearance of different kinds of locking during the analysis. In nal function to just two, the weak form of this modified re-
fact, many valuable studies have been made to reach a kind of duced function may be obtained with the direction derivative
a combination between shell and solid elements. A large num- leading to:
ber of studies have been done to prevent volumetric locking,
shear locking or thickness locking, using the enhanced as- G (u, E V
(
) = S : Ec + E
dV )
sumed strain concept, namely Valente et al. [15], de Sousa et (5)
FV . udV FS . udA = 0 .
al. [16], Reese [17] and Quy and Matzen-miller [18]. The V V f

assumed natural strain (ANS) concept has been used as well

by Hauptmann and Schweizerhof [19], Tan and Vu-Quoc [20], This equation must be linearized to take the following form:
Kim et al. [21] and Klinkel et al. [22]. The implementation of
the enhanced assumed strain (EAS) and the assumed natural
V
(
DG.(u, E ) = E c : : E c + E
dV ) (6)
strain (ANS) concepts was proposed by Schwarze et al. [23]
who implemented these two concepts in the finite element + S : E dV + E
V
c : : E + E
V
(
dV c
)
code.
The remainder of this paper in divided into five sections. where is the elasticity tensor. Eq. (6) will be solved by the
Section one presents the research work in the domain of buck- Newton-Raphson method.
ling analysis applied to structure, section two describes the
fundamental formulation used. The finite element formulation
3. Finite element formulation
and buckling analysis is defined in section three. After that,
numerical results and discussions of the finite element model The finite element is based on the eight-node hexahedral
are investigated in detail in section four. Finally, some con- solid shell element. The displacement field, with the corre-
cluding remarks are analyzed and presented in section five. sponding variation and increment, is interpolated within each
element domain in the following form:
2. Fundamental formulation
The grounds of the EAS method come from the important u = NU e ; u = N U e and u = NU e (7)
scientific work of Simo and Rifai [13], where the strain field is
enlarged with the inclusion of additional variables, usually where U e is the vector of nodal displacements at the element
referred to as enhancing parameters, as given by Eq. (1). It level.
should be noted that these additional variables dont really The variation of the increment of the compatible part of the
have physical meaning and are eliminated at the element level: strain field can then related to the vector of nodal displace-
ments:

E = Ec + E (1)
E c = B U e ; E c = BU e (8)
where E and E are respectively the compatible part and
c

the enhanced part of the Green-Lagrange tensor. where B is the compatible strain-displacement relations
The variational basis of the finite element method with en- matrix.
hanced assumed strain fields is based on the well known three The enhanced part is related to the vector of the internal
field Hu-Washizu principal, which, by using Eq. (1), takes the strain parameters as:
following forms:
= M
E ; E
=M
; E
=M
(9)
(
(u, E , S ) = ( E
V
)
+ E c ) S : E dV ( u ) = 0
ext (2)
is the interpolation function matrix for the en-
ext ( u ) = FV .udV + FS .udA (3) where M
V V f
hanced assumed strain field. The interpolation is first defined
in the local coordinate and must be transferred to the global
where is the strain energy function and u and S are coordinates as follows:
the displacement and the Piola-Kirchoff stress fields, respec-
tively. Also in the equations appear the prescribed body force = det J 0 T T M
M (10)
0
FV and surface traction FS . det J
Invoking the orthogonality condition:
where J refers to the Jacobian matrix and T is the trans-
formation tensor.

V
S : EdV = 0. (4)
 A. Hajlaoui et al. / Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology 26 (10) (2012) 3213~3221 3215

( t ) 2 ( t21 ) (t31 )
2 2
2t11t21 2t11t31 2t21t31 K G is the geometric stiffness matrix, such as:
11 2
( t12 ) (t22 ) ( t32 )
2 2
2t12t22 2t12t32 2t22t32
U eT K G U e = S : E c dVe (18)
T = ( t13 ) ( t23 ) (t33 )
2 2 2
2t13t23 2t13t33 2t23t33 Ve

t11t12 t21t22 t31t32 t11t22 + t12t21 t11t32 + t12t31 t21t32 + t22t31
t t t21t23 t31t33 t11t23 + t13t21 t11t33 + t13t31 t21t33 + t23t31
11 13 f int , f ext and h are given by the following expressions:
t12t13 t22t23 t32t33 t12t23 + t13t22 t12t33 + t13t32 t22t33 + t23t32
(11)
f int = BT S dVe ; f ext =
Ve
(19)
The subscript 0 means evaluation at the center of the
N FV dVe + N T FS dA; h = M
T S dV .
T
V fe e
stander element in the natural coordinates. M is the interpo- Ve Ve

lation matrix for the enhanced field defined in the local frame
with 5, 7 and 9 parameters of the compatible part given by: The strain parameters must be eliminated from Eq. (15) at
the element level. For this purpose we use the static condensa-
1 0 0 0 0 tion procedure, which leads to, the element stiffness matrix
given by:
0
2
0 0 0
0 0
= 0 0
3
M (12) K T = K e + K G LT H 1 L (20)
0 0 0
5 1 2

0 0 0 0 0
and the residual vector:
0 0 0 0 0

1 0 0 0 0 0 0 Re = LT H 1h + f ext f int . (21)

0
2
0 0 0 0 0
0 0 1 3 2 3
= 0 0
3
M (13) To avoid the transverse shear locking phenomenon, the in-
0 0 0
7 1 2
0 0 terpolation method proposed by Dvorkin and Bathe [12] is
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 used. To avoid the strain locking the EAS method proposed

0 0 0 0 0 0 0 by Betsch and Stein [24] and extended by Klinkel et al. [22] is

adopted. Then the expression of compatible part of the Green-
1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 2 0
1 2
Lagrange tensor takes the following form (Fig. 1).
0
2
0 0 0 0 0 0
0 0 3 0 0 1 3 2 3 0
2 ( 11
=
M
0
. 1
g G11 )
9
0 0 0
1 2
2 ( 22
0 0 0 0

1
g G22 )
0 0 0 0 0 0
0 0 0 4
0 0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0 ( )(
14 1 + L1 1 1 + L2 2 12 g 33L G33L ) ( )
Ec = TST L =1 (22)

(14)

( g12 G12 )
After including interpolation functions for enhanced strain 2
( B
13 )(
1 1 g GB + 1+ 2 gD GD
2
13 ) (
13 13 )( )


1
fields, given in Eq. (1), and also from Eqs. (7) and (8), the ( 2 A
)(
A 2
) (
2 1 g 23 G23 + 1 + g 23 G23
C C
)( )

linearized weak variational form is given by:

G + DG.(u, ) = The compatible strain-displacement relations matrix at the

element level is given by:
K LT U e f int f ext (15)
Ue + = 0
H
L h g1T N I ,1

gT2 N I ,2
with 4



L =1
1
4 ( )( )
1 + L1 1 1 + L2 2 g 3L N LI ,3

BI =
L= M gT2 N I ,1 + g1T N I ,2
M dVe ;
T B dV ; H = M T
e
(16)
)( ) ( )( )
Ve Ve

K = Ke + KG 2 (
1 1 2 g B T N B + g B T N B + 1 + 2 g DT N D + g DT N D
3 I ,1 1 I ,3 3 I ,1 1 I ,3



( )( ) ( )(
12 1 1 g 3A N IA,2 + g 2A N IA,3 + 1 + 1 g 3C N CI ,2 + g C2 N CI ,3 )

T T T T

where K e is given by:
(23)

K e = BT B dVe (17)
Ve
3216 A. Hajlaoui et al. / Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology 26 (10) (2012) 3213~3221

Table 1. Description of different types of element.

Elements Description

Solid element enhanced with 9 incompatible modes

C3D8I9
using the EAS
Solid element enhanced with 15 incompatible modes
C3D8I15
using the EAS
Solid element enhanced with 21 incompatible modes
C3D8I21
using the EAS
Solid shell element enhanced with 5 incompatible
C3D8S5
modes using the EAS and ANS
Solid shell element enhanced with 7 incompatible
C3D8S7
modes using the EAS and ANS
Fig. 2. Comparison of critical buckling load in (N/mm2) for symmetric
Solid shell element enhanced with 9 incompatible cross-ply square plates subjected to uniaxial uniform loads, b / h = 10 .
C3D8S9
modes using the EAS and ANS

(a)

After deformation (mode 1)

(b)

Fig. 1. Strain interpolations points: (a) Shear strain; (b) Transverse

strain.

where L1 , L2 , L3 , L4 , A, B, C and D are given in Fig. 1.

From this formulation, we obtain two types of element the
Fig. 3. Geometry of a cross-ply composite plate; E11 / E22 = open,
solid element and the solid shell element given in Table 1.
E22 = E33 = 3.35 GPa , G23 = 0.5E22 , G12 = G13 = 0.6 E22 and 12 =
The basic equation of the buckling analysis is in the form of 13 = 23 = 0.25.
an eigenvalue problem:

(K e )
LT H 1 L = K G
where is the generalized global displacement eigenvector.
This eigenvalue problem is solved using the subspace iteration
method. The smallest eigenvalue 1 among eigenvalues ob-
tained by the subspace iteration method is the buckling load
and its corresponding eigenvector is the corresponding buck-
ling mode.
(24)
4. Numerical results and discussion
4.1 Comparison with known results
The finite element model developed herein is validated by
comparing the results with the three-dimensional elasticity
solution given by Noor [25], with the enhanced assumed strain
solid element given by Lee and Park [26] and with the high
order shear deformation theory given by Kant and Manjuntha
[27] as shown in Fig. 2, where they considered a simply sup-
ported cross-ply [0/90/90/0], under uniform uniaxial loading
 A. Hajlaoui et al. / Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology 26 (10) (2012) 3213~3221 3217

(a)
After deformation (mode 1)

Fig. 5. Geometry of a cross-ply composite plate; E11 / E22 = open,

E22 = E33 , G23 = 0.5 E22 , G12 = G13 = 0.6 E22 and 12 = 13 = 23 = 0.25.

(b)

Fig. 4. Geometry of isotropic plate: (a) E11 =1 107 ; (b) = 0.49 .

as shown in Fig. 3.
The present results have the closest results with 3D elastic-
ity solution. It shows more accurate values than all other theo-
ries.

4.2 The effects of some parameters in the buckling load

4.2.1 Performance test

To test the performance of the proposed elements in the
Fig. 6. Buckling loads versus modulus ratio ( E11 / E22 ) of symmetric
nearly incompressible range, a finesse mesh test is performed
and antisymmetric cross-ply laminated square plates.
for an isotropic simply supported plate subjected to in-plane
uniaxial compressive loads (Fig. 4(a)).
Fig. 4(b) shows the evolution of the normalized buckling 4.2.2 Laminated plate without delamination
load (NCriNum/NCriAnaly) versus the mesh finesse; one can In this section, we study the effect of modulus ratio E11 / E22
see that the numerical solution converge toward the analytical and aspect ratios (a/b) on the behavior of the laminates with
solution for a mesh of 8 x 8 x 2. different stacking sequences ([0/90/90/0], [90/0/0/90],
The analytic compressive force is expressed as [0/90/0/90]). Therefore, we consider a four layer cross-ply
laminated plate subjected to in-plane uniaxial compressive
2D Eh3 loads, as shown in Fig. 5. It is assumed that boundary condi-
N CrAnaly = 4 , with D = .
a 2
(
12 1 2 ) tions at the two unloaded ends are free and at the two other
ends are considered to be simply-supported.
Fig. 6 shows the influence to various values of modulus ra-
It is shown that studied solid-shell elements are free from tio ( E11 / E22 ). The critical load of buckling increases as the
locking due to incompressibility starting from this mesh fi- modulus ratio ( E11 / E22 ) increases for the three laminates,
nesse. symmetrical and antisymmetric. The symmetric [0/90/90/0]
3218 A. Hajlaoui et al. / Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology 26 (10) (2012) 3213~3221

After deformation (mode 1)

Fig. 7. Buckling loads versus aspect ratios of symmetric and
antisymmetric cross-ply laminated plates.

laminate exhibits the largest buckling loads because the fiber

orientation at surface is parallel to the in-plane load.
Fig. 7 shows the buckling loads versus various aspect ratios
(a/b) for symmetric and anti symmetric cross ply laminated
plates without delamination. The width of the plate is main-
tained constant with 10 mm and only the value of a change
during the analysis. The buckling load decreases when the
aspect ratio increases for all stacking sequences. The stacking
sequences [0/90/90/0] present the highest buckling load be- Fig. 8. Geometry of a cross-ply composite plate; E11 / E22 = open,
E22 = E33 , G23 = 0.5E22 , G12 = G13 = 0.6 E22 and 12 = 13 = 23 = 0.25.
cause the fiber orientation located at surface is parallel to the
in-plane load.

4.2.3 Laminated plate with delamination

The following discussion extends the present analysis to
study the effect of some parameters on the behavior of lami-
nated composite plates with delaminations such as the stack-
ing sequences, delamination size, aspect ratio and width to
thickness ratio.
To study the influence of the delamination size and the
width-to-thickness ratio on the buckling behavior of a simply
supported symmetric laminated plate, we consider a cross ply
square laminated plate [0/90/90//0] under uniform in plan
force with through-the-width delamination between the two Fig. 9. Buckling loads versus delamination sizes for various modulus
last layers, as shown in Fig. 8. ratio E11 / E22 .
The buckling loads for different through-the-width delami-
nation size of square plate with various values of ( E11 / E22 )
are plotted in Fig. 9. It is shown that the buckling load de-
creases as the delamination size decreases. However, the
buckling load tends to decrease quickly even for small de-
lamination ( D / a = 0.2 ); this phenomenon confirms that the
presence of delamination reduces the strength of the laminate
and the global buckling modes are converted into local buck-
ling modes for small delamination size.
Fig. 10 shows the variation of the buckling load with the
width-to-thickness ratio for different values of the delamina-
tion size. It is clear that a large delamination size results in a
decrease of the plate resistance against the buckling behavior
especially in the case of thin plate.
In this section, we study the effect of the delamination size, Fig. 10. Buckling loads versus width-to-thickness ratio for various
aspect ratio, the width to thickness ratio and the stacking se- delamination sizes.
 A. Hajlaoui et al. / Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology 26 (10) (2012) 3213~3221
After deformation (mode 1)
Fig. 11. Geometry of a cross-ply composite plate; E11 / E22
= open, E22 = E33 = 3.35 GPa , G23 = 0.5E22 , G12 = G13 = 0.6 E22 and
12 = 13 = 23 = 0.25.
Fig. 12. Buckling loads versus delamination sizes for various modulus
ratio E11 / E22 .
quences, on the buckling behavior of a simply supported-free
laminated plate.
For all discussed cases, a four-layer cross-ply laminated
plate subjected to in-plane uniaxial compressive loads, as
shown in Fig. 11, is considered. It is assumed that boundary
conditions at the two unloaded ends are free and at the two
other ends are considered to be simply supported.
The buckling loads as a function of aspect ratio and for se-
lected values of delamination size are plotted in Fig. 12. It is
shown that the buckling load decreases as the aspect ratio
increases and as the delamination size decreases. However,
3219
Fig. 13. Buckling loads versus aspect ratio for various delamination
sizes.
Fig. 14. Buckling loads versus width-to-thickness ratio for various
delamination sizes.
Fig. 15. Buckling loads versus delamination size for various stacking
sequence.
the buckling load tends to decrease quickly even for small
delamination ( D / a = 0.2 ); this phenomenon confirms that the
presence of delamination reduces the strength of the laminate
and the global buckling modes are converted into local buck-
ling modes for small delamination size. Fig. 13 gives the
buckling loads as a function of modulus ratio and delamina-
tion size. From the plots, it can be concluded that the bucking
load increases as the modulus ratio increases.
Fig. 14 shows the variation of the buckling load with the
width-to-thickness ratio for different values of the delamina-
3220 A. Hajlaoui et al. / Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology 26 (10) (2012) 3213~3221
tion size. It is clear that a large delamination size results in a
decrease in the plate resistance against the buckling behavior
especially in the case of thin plate.
Fig. 15 illustrates the variation of the buckling load versus
the delamination size for symmetric and antisymmetric cross
play laminated square plates: the largest buckling load is ob-
tained in the case of symmetric laminated [0/90/90//0], be-
cause the fiber orientation at the layer with the delamination is
parallel to the in-plane loads.
5. Conclusions
A solid-shell finite element with an enhanced assumed
strain is developed to investigate the buckling behavior of
laminated composite plates with delamination. A three-
dimensional finite element model taking into account thick-
ness variation in the plan and the transverse shearing and im-
proved by incompatible modes has been presented. The trans-
verse shearing locking problem is avoided by applying the
assumed natural strain (ANS) method. The incompatible part
is enriched by the enhanced assumed strain (EAS) method in
order to avoid the problem of volumetric and transverse shear
locking.
The developed finite element model is validated by compar-
ing the results with the three-dimensional elasticity solution.
The buckling behavior of composite laminates is investi-
gated based on the use of EAS solid shell element. The com-
parison among the results has revealed that the application of
the formulated model is more efficient than the use of the EAS
solid element and the high order shear deformation theory.
The influence of some parameters in the buckling behavior
of a laminated composite plate with through-the-width de-
lamination is presented. This formulation is being extended to
study more complicated cases, especially those dealing with
arbitrary and multiple delaminations.
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Abdessalem Jarraya is an Assistant
Professor at ENI-Sfax, Tunisia. He is a
researcher in Mechanical, Modelling and
Manufacturing Unit (U2MP) at the
National School of Engineers in Sfax.
His current and previous research
interests are structural design
optimization, design sensitivity analysis
and nonlinear structural mechanics.
Fakhreddine Dammak is a Professor
at ENI-Sfax, Tunisia. He is researcher in
Mechanical, Modelling and Manu-
facturing Unit (U2MP) at the National
School of Engineers in Sfax. His current
and previous research interests are
elastoplastic material property identi-
fication, finite element, structural design
optimization, design sensitivity analysis, nonlinear structural
mechanics, analysis and fatigue, wear and tribology.