Analysis of impact response and damage in laminated composite shell involving large deformation and material degradation

Abstract

A nonlinear finite element analysis of impact response and impact-induced damage in curved composite laminates subjected to transverse impact by a foreign object is carried out. An eight-noded isoparametric quadrilateral shell element incorporating a nonlinear strain displacement relation due to large deflection is developed based on the total Lagrangian approach. The nonlinear system of equations is solved using a Newton-Raphson incremental-iterative method. Example problems of graphite/epoxy cylindrically curved laminates with different curvature are considered and the influence of geometrical nonlinearity on the impact response and the resulting damage is demonstrated. The concurrent effect of material degradation due to impact damage is also investigated.

Impact response of laminated cylindrical shells

“…This difference is around 21.8%, but when compared the 6C and 2C+2K+2C configurations the difference is only 14%. In fact, according with the literature, stiffer structures produce higher impact forces, smaller deflections, and shorter contact duration times [29,33,36,44,45]. The geometry of a laminate composite structure, boundary conditions and material properties strongly influences its impact response [29].…”

“…According with the study developed, higher mass values of the impactor are responsible by the increasing of the contact time and the damage occurred under the impact point. A nonlinear finite element analysis of impact response and impact-induced damage in curved composite laminates subjected to transverse impact by a foreign object was developed by Kumar [36]. It was possible to conclude that the impact response is significantly dependent on the shell curvature.…”

Interaction of inter- and intralaminar damage in scaled quasi-static indentation tests: Part 2 – Numerical simulation

“…Therefore, this laminate seems to be a special case in that the membrane-stiffening effect or geometric nonlinearity [54,55] plays an important role not only in the early elastic region before the load drop but also in counteracting global stiffness degradation due to delamination. This has been shown in both simulation and experimental results in Figure 4(c & d).…”

Dynamic Response Of Laminated Composite Shells Subjected To Impulsive Loads

“…Also, the effect of the ply layup and the boundary conditions on the natural frequencies and mode shapes of cylindrical laminated composite shells were demonstrated. S. Kumar, [4] presented a nonlinear finite element transient dynamic analysis to predict the impact response and the impact-induced damage in a laminated composite cylindrical shell subjected to transverse impact. Example problems of graphite/epoxy cylindrically curved laminates with different curvature were considered and the influence of geometrical nonlinearity on the impact response and the resulting damage were demonstrated.…”