Simulation of high velocity impact test on GFRP

Abstract

The fundamental requirement in different applications of composites is resistance to high velocity impact loading. The present study is about simulating and investigating high velocity impact tests on E-glass/epoxy composite. The modelling of the composite plate and the projectile is done using Ansys Composite Prepost. The material used for the projectile is mild steel. The impact tests were simulated in Ansys Explicit Dynamics with hemispherical nose configuration and compared with results obtained from experiments done by previous work. Additional simulations were carried out using conical and cylindrical nose configurations. The ballistic limit of the composite is also obtained in each of these cases. Different aspects of the impact mechanism such as formation of cone on the back face of the target, distribution of stress on both the faces were investigated. The impact tests were carried out in previous works using gas gun method where a compressed gas gun bullet is used to penetrate the target. It is concluded that the simulated results had a good agreement with the experiments.