High-Velocity Impact Simulation on Composite Laminate

[Capy]

Hello,

I am currently interested in simulating high-energy impact events to composite structure to capture damage responses of the composite laminate, including delamination, matrix cracking, and fibre failures. I wonder what the advantages of using ABAQUS Explicit software to model this event and what limitations I need to be aware of. Also, in order to capture high fidelity in damage responses under impact event, what type of models (e.g., element, material, interface, and contact model) and boundary conditions I need to use?

Thank you very much.

 

[SWComposites]

There have been lots of papers published on this type of analysis. Search at scholar.google.com. And look for NASA Langley reports in their technical report archive.

It is a very complex analysis. Most analyses I have seen have been down with Abaqus Explicit or LS-Dyna.

 

[FEA way]

Abaqus (with its explicit dynamics solver) should be sufficient for this. Such analyses are even covered in their course about composite modeling. You pretty much don't have to worry about contact since the general (automatic) contact algorithm will handle this. You just have to constrain the structure properly (based on how it's supposed to be supported in real life) and define material properties (this will be the trickiest part but research papers and possibly your own tests should suffice). Abaqus doesn't have any particular weaknesses in this area so I would choose it.