Residual strength of C/SiC composite after low-velocity impact

Abstract

Impact will cause damage and reduce the strength of composites. An approach on predicting the residual strength of ceramic matrix C/SiC composite with impact damage is proposed, experimental and numerical investigations on low-speed impact damage and residual strength analysis of composites are conducted. According to the measured mechanical parameters, the C/SiC composite was regarded as homogenized orthotropic material to improve the calculation efficiency and simplify the finite element model. The impact damage analysis and residual strength calculation were carried out based on progressive damage theory with 3Dhashin failure criteria. The depth and the diameter of indentation, the residual compressive strength are selected as comparison parameters, the good agreement between experimental results and simulation results validate the finite element model. In addition, the residual compression strength of C/SiC under different impact energy are calculated, and the relationship between the residual strength and impact energy is obtained, which is a semi-empirical formula of the residual strength with respect to the impact energy.