Modelling low-speed drop-weight impact on composite laminates

Ang Qiu, Kunkun Fu, Wei Lin, Chengbi Zhao, Youhong Tang

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    32 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    The impact responses of typical laminates are investigated umerically in this research. Delamination responses among plies and fibre and/or matrix damage responses within plies are simulated to understand the behaviours of laminates under different impaction conditions. Damage resistance of a laminate is highly dependent upon several factors including geometry, thickness, stiffness, mass, and impact energies (impact velocities), which are here considered by the finite element (FE) method. Three groups of composite laminates are simulated and the numerical results in general are in good agreement with corresponding experiments. Models containing different stacking sequences and impact energies are built to study their influence on impact responses and demonstrate that clustered (or nearly clustered) plies in the laminate can effectively reduce the degree of interface damage. Models containing different indenters and plate shapes are also built to systematically study their influence on the low-speed drop-weight behaviour of composite laminates. Suggestions are proposed for designing impact tests for particular purposes.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)520-531
    Number of pages12
    JournalMaterials and Design
    Volume60
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - Aug 2014

    Keywords

    • Damage process
    • Delamination
    • Experimental design
    • Fibre-reinforced laminate
    • Impact behaviour

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