Dynamic Analysis and Damage of Composite Layered Plates Reinforced by Unidirectional Fibers Subjected Low Velocity Impact

Abstract

Currently, for dynamic modeling in composite structures at low and high speeds are used mainly Finite Element Method (FEM). For these analyzes commercial FEM software ABAQUS/explicit, LS-DYNA, AUTODYN and PAM CRASH, etc., are used in practice. In the present study, low-velocity impact response of composite laminates was studied using ABAQUS/Explicit code (FEM) to investigate damage by employing various damage criteria. The basic material properties in and transverse to the fiber directions, such as the elastic moduli, strains at failure, and plastic moduli among others are determined by simple tests in tension, compression, and shear. The material properties AS4/PEEK was used in numerical simulations and have been taken from the literature. Layer is considered as homogeneous transversely isotropic and layer stacking sequence is symmetrical or unsymmetrical. The solution in the form of time integration can be, depending on the problem, accomplished via implicit or explicit methods. For many of dynamic problems explicit methods have shown more suitable, cause they do not require stiffness, mass and damping matrix decomposition. In the plates examined, von Mises’s stress and damage caused shear stress in the matrix and fiber were evaluated. From the results obtained, it was found that the von Mises stress was approximately the same for all types layer stacking sequence.