IMPACT DAMAGE PREDICTION IN CARBON COMPOSITE STRUCTURES

This paper describes a strategy for predicting the extent of internal damage in a brittle carbon fibre laminated composite structure, when subjected to low velocity impact by a single mass. The success of the predictions, which avoid expensive three-dimensional analysis, is Validated by test for a wide range of structures from small stiff plates through to large flexible stiffened compression panels whose residual strength is affected much more by internal delamination than tension structures. It is shown that a numerical model needs to incorporate nonlinear behaviour due to both gross deformations and to in-plane material degradation.