23rd Congress of International Council of the Aeronautical Sciences, 8-13 September, 2002, Toronto, Canada
Paper ICAS 2002-8.6.2

AN APPROACH TO MODELLING AND PREDICTING IMPACT DAMAGE IN COMPOSITE STRUCTURES

S. P. Rajbhandari (1), M. L. Scott (1), R. S. Thompson (2), D. Hachenberg (3)
(1) RMIT University, Australia; (2) Cooperative Research Centre for Advanced Composite Structures Limited, Fishermans Bend, Victoria, Australia; (3) Airbus Deutschland GmbH, Germany

Keywords: impact damage, composites, delamination, fem, ls-dyna

Low-velocity impact on composite structures results in potentially critical matrix cracks, fibre failure and delamination. A modelling technique has been developed which uses single layer shell elements to predict both the in-plane damage and delamination. This technique has been implemented into a parametric damage assessment tool to permit the rapid assessment of impact damage tolerance in the design and maintenance of composite, aerospace structures.

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