Published Paper Details:

Abstract: The study on low velocity impact damage in fiber reinforced laminated composite structures has a major importance in Aerospace industries. This paper deals with the development of finite element models to simulate the damage or failure initiation and its propagation in a carbon fiber reinforced polymeric matrix composite structure due to a low velocity impact. An experimental work have been conducted by authors specified in literature for a circular plate made from carbon/epoxy material which is subjected to low energy impact of different magnitude as 7.33 J, 11.03 J and 14.67 J based on a drop weight impact test according to ASTM D7136 M-15. An equivalent model is simulated using ABAQUS/Explicit finite element modeling tool using three dimensional (3D) Hashin failure criteria for intralaminar damage initiation and stiffness degradation is achieved using scalar damage variables. A three dimensional solid interface element (or cohesive element) is introduced in between adjacent layers with different fiber orientation to simulate the interlaminar damage initiation using quadratic stress criteria and Benzeggagh-Kenane (B-K) fracture criterion for damage propagation. The 3D Hashin failure criteria is implemented as the user implemented material subroutine (VUMAT) code using Fortran programming language. The damage in fiber and matrix is represented using four scalar damage variables of a particular modes of failure with the help of solution dependent state variables (SDV). The interlaminar damage is represented using the area of deleted elements of solid interface. The numerical result is validated with an experimentally obtained one from literature and showing an excellent agreement and thus it shows the accuracy of the currently proposed finite element model.