In this paper, a mechanism-based lamina level modeling approach is used as the basis
for developing a macroscopic (lamina level) model to capture the mechanisms of kink
banding. Laminae are modeled as inelastic degrading
homogenized layers in
a state of plane stress according to Schapery Theory (ST). However, the
principal orthotropic material axes are allowed to rotate as a function of
deformation. In ST, each lamina degrades as characterized through laboratory scale
experiments. In the fiber direction, elastic behavior prevails; however, in this work,
the phenomenon of fiber microbuckling leading to kink banding, which is
responsible for the sudden degradation of the axial lamina properties under
compression, is explicitly accounted for by allowing the fiber rotation at
a material point to be a variable in the problem. These features are built
into a user-defined material subroutine that is implemented through the
commercial finite element (FE) software ABAQUS. Thus, in this model we
eschew the notion of a fixed compressive strength of a lamina and instead
use the mechanics of the failure process to provide the in situ compression
strength of a material point in a lamina, the latter being dictated strongly
by the current local stress state, the current state of the lamina transverse
material properties, and the local fiber rotation. The inputs to this model are
laboratory scale, coupon level test data (at the lamina level) that provide
information on the lamina transverse property degradation (that is, appropriate,
measured, strain-stress relations of the lamina transverse properties), the elastic
lamina orthotropic properties and the geometry of the lamina. The validity of
the approach advocated is demonstrated through numerical simulations of
unidirectional lamina with initial fiber imperfections. The predictions of the
simulations reported in this paper are compared against previously reported
results from micromechanical analyses. Good agreement between the present
macroscopic modeling approach and the previous micromechanical observations are
reported.