Delamination analysis of a fixed-ended multilayered beam under twisted support

This paper studies peculiarities of the delamination behaviour of a fixed-ended multilayered load-caring beam structure under twisted support. The layers of the beam are of different materials and have different thickness. Besides, the layers are inhomogeneous along the beam length. The cross-section of the beam is a rectangle. Both ends of the beam under consideration are fixed, i.e. the beam represents statically undetermined structure. No external loading is applied on the beam. However, the left-hand support of the beam is twisted. This induces stresses and strains in the statically undetermined beam which leads to delamination that is subject of analysis in the present paper. The strain energy release rate for the delamination is derived. For this purpose, the strain energy in the beam generated by the twisted support is determined and then differentiated with respect to the delamination area. The compliance of the beam under twisted support is analyzed to perform a verification of the solution of the strain energy release rate. A parametric investigation is carried-out in order to clarify the effects of a variety of factors like magnitude of the angle of support twist, beam geometry, configuration of layers, distribution of properties of layers along the beam length, etc. on delamination behaviour.