In this article, a novel numerical approach for the delamination growth simulation in composite panels under compressive load is proposed. This approach, suitable for preliminary design and optimization purposes, is able to simulate the delamination propagation by means of a limited number of linear analyses. It is based on the determination of the delamination buckling and on the evaluation of the energy released during the delamination propagation by means of eigenvalue and linear static analyses. The proposed approach has been implemented into the finite element code ANSYS and applied to composite panels with circular embedded and rectangular through-the-width delaminations under compressive load. A first validation has been carried out by comparing the results in terms of delamination growth load and energy release rate distributions along the delamination front to two-dimensional and three-dimensional nonlinear results taken from literature.
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