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 s ubjected to low velocity impact by a single mass. The success of the p redictions, which avoid expensive three-dimensional analysis, is Valid ated by test for a wide range of structures from small stiff plates th rough to large flexible stiffened compression panels whose residual st rength is affected much more by internal delamination than tension str uctures. It is shown that a numerical model needs to incorporate nonli near behaviour due to both gross deformations and to in-plane material degradation.