

A Numerical Study on Inter-Laminar Failure Mechanisms Evolution in a Composite Wing Box Under Bending Loading Conditions
Abstract
In this paper, a numerical study has been carried out on skin delamination and skin-stringer debonding growth interactions in a composite wing-box under bending loading conditions. The adopted numerical model uses the Virtual Crack Closure Technique to simulate the inter-laminar damage evolution and the numerical analyses have been performed by means of the FEM code ABAQUS. Three wing-box configurations have been investigated. The first configuration is characterized by only one skin delamination while the other two configurations foresee the concurrent presence of one skin delamination and differently sized skin stringer debondings. The numerical results obtained for all the investigated wing-box configurations have been assessed and compared each other in terms of delaminated area evolution, delamination growth initiation load and strain distributions in order to investigate the influence of the simultaneous presence of the two damages on delamination growth evolution and on the global behavior of the wing-box.