Modelling of Low Velocity Impact of Laminated Composite Substructures

Impact is among the important loading scenario which is required to be addressed for fibre reinforced plastics (FRP) materials in ground or space vehicle applications. The failure behaviour of FRP materials under impact loading is a complex process and a detailed analysis of various mode of failure is necessary. In this paper the failure behaviour of laminated carbon fibre reinforced plastic (CFRP) composite structures under impact loading is investigated by conducting numerical simulations using the explicit finite element analysis ANSYS LS-DYNA software [1]. The impact responses and failure behaviours are being investigated by performing a parametric study and sensitivity analysis in which impact velocity, number of plies, incident angle, friction between contacted surfaces, impactor mass and the geometry are varied in separate cases. The FE model is validated by comparing the numerical results with other published results and good correlations are achieved.