TRANSIENT-RESPONSE OF A COMPOSITE BEAM SUBJECT TO ELASTOPLASTIC IMPACT

An elastic-plastic contact law that includes the effect of permanent d eformation in the contact zone is used to study the transient response of a composite beam subject to impact. The governing differential equ ations are normalized to yield four nondimensional parameters which co mpletely describe the impact event. A modal analysis procedure is used to spatially discretize the normalized boundary value problem to obta in a set of ordinary differential equations which are integrated numer ically. Simulation results show that the local permanent deformations significantly affect the impact response. This indicates the importanc e of using an adequate contact law for an accurate prediction of the i mpact forces and strains during impact of composite structures.