Numerical and experimental investigations of embedded delamination growth caused by compressive loading

The paper deals with growth analysis of initially circular delaminations embedded in carbon-epoxy laminate plates subjected to compressive loading. Three different reinforcement lay-ups yielding different elastic laminate properties were considered. The numerical results were supplemented with experimental ones. The reasonably good agreement between the numerical predictions and experimental results was found. It was shown that variation in elastic properties of sub-laminates separated by delaminations significantly affected the way the delaminations propagated.