Computer simulation of impact damage on thin-skinned carbon fibre composite panels

Abstract

An analytical study was carried out using the 3-D explicit finite element (FE) code MSC/DYTRAN to analyse geometric nonlinear impact problems. The panel under investigation has an impact window of 90 x 80 mm with simple support boundary condition. T300/914 preimpregnated unidirectional carbon fibre/epoxy composite material was used and the lay-up sequence was [(0/90/45/45){3}]{s}. The nominal skin thickness was 3 mm. The impactor was modelled using solid elements and was excited by assigning an initial velocity. Damage analyses were undertaken using the Chang-Chang failure criteria implemented within MSC/DYTRAN together with degradation models. The progressive impact damage scenario was simulated, enabling the prediction of matrix and fibre failure. Low and high velocity cases were studied under low energy impact, significantly different behaviours were observed. It is concluded that MSC/DYTRAN is an appropriate tool for analysing impact in thin-skinned carbon fibre materials.