Node-dependent kinematics approach for progressive damage analysis of pultruded composite structures based on 3D Tsai-Wu damage model

This work investigates the progressive damage analysis of pultruded composite structures using the higher-order beam models with Node-Dependent Kinematics (NDK) based on Carrera Unified Formulation (CUF). A three-dimensional (3D) Tsai-Wu orthotropic damage model is implemented, in which the fracture energy and viscous regularization techniques are coupled. Subsequently, three experimental benchmarks involving compact tension, three-point bending, and four-point bending tests on pultruded composite structures are selected to validate the proposed numerical framework. The comparison between numerical and experimental results shows that the numerical framework is able to provide accurate and objective structural responses. Furthermore, the use of NDK enhances the computational efficiency of the progressive damage analysis without affecting accuracy.