BEM simulation of the interlaminar stresses of 3D thin composites subjected to inertial loads

A common concern in the use of thin laminated composites is the potential debonding caused by interlaminar stresses of adhesives. However, their simulations by conventional schemes present modelling difficulties stemming from the thinness of each laminate and adhesive layer. For that, conventional simulations usually neglect the presence of thin adhesives on interfaces. Due to such negligence, any potential debonding from the failure of adhesives cannot be properly assessed. This paper presents efficiently modelling of the interlaminar stresses in 3D thin laminated composites when subjected to the inertial loads of self-weight or rotations using the boundary element method (BEM). By applying the FG-Squircular mapping (introduced by Manuel Fernandez-Guasti in 1992), the transformed boundary singular integrals due to the inertial loads are completely regularized. By the BEM modelling, thin laminated composites bonded with thin sheets of adhesives on interfaces can thus be modelled using very coarse meshes.