Central and noncentral normal impact on orthotropic: Composite cylindrical shells

The response of orthotropic composite cylindrical shells subjected to low-velocity impact by a solid striker is described. An analytical solution that accommodates normal impact at any location is presented. This solution is based on a higher order shear deformation theory and derived in terms of two sets of shell coordinates and an integer factor to facilitate analysis of noncentral impact. An analytic impact force function recently proposed by the authors is used to predict the contact force between striker and shell and this is incorporated into the solution. Impact experiments are also conducted on a simply supported glass/epoxy cylindrical shell. The effective contact stiffness between the shell and striker is obtained by fitting an impact force function to experimental data. The strain responses of the shell to central and noncentral impact are investigated and the present solutions verified by the experiments.