Damage initiation of laminated FRP composite plates under impact

The behaviour of composite laminates is not yet well understood under various impact loadings. Matrix cracking and delamination are the most common damage mechanisms in laminated fiber reinforced composite structures under impact. These damages are very difficult to detect by inspection from outside but they may cause a serious decrease in material strength and stiffness at the time of production, maintenance and due to small particle crashing to composite body. In this study, an efficient Finite Element Analysis model is developed in order to simulate initiation of damage in laminated composite plates under transverse impact loading considering different failure mechanisms. Hashin's failure model is incorporated into ABAQUS/Explicit for the present purpose. The influence of impactor velocity, thickness of plates and different stacking sequences is investigated for the initiation of damage in laminated composite plates under impact loading. Many new useful results are presented to show the variation of contact force, displacement, energy and stress resultants with time.