Prediction of low velocity impact damage in carbon/epoxy laminates

The paper deals with the analysis for damage in carbon/epoxy laminates subjected to low velocity impact. The study is related to application of carbon fiber composites in airframe structures. In this paper, FEM 3D analysis for modeling and predicting the damage in carbon-epoxy laminate subjected to low velocity impact were performed. The model of finite elements assuming the interlamiar shear stresses continuity between different oriented layers is presented. Two different laminates were evaluated employing VUMAT redeveloped ABAQUS. The occurrence of matrix failure and the delaminated areas were predicted by using the failure criteria based on empirical relation and other developed criteria. Comparisons with test data for a damaged carbon-epoxy laminate are provided for model verifications. A good agreement between analysis and experimental results for the mode and orientation of delaminations were obtained. This approach provides a significant improvement over methods reported in the literature for problems of this nature (C) 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.