Impact damage analysis of composite plates

An integrated modelling and testing procedure for carbon/epoxy composite pl ates has been developed to evaluate the impact damage initiation and propag ation. Three failure modes have been investigated and implemented for the d amage simulation. Three-dimensional dynamic finite element method was used to simulate the real impact events. A detailed comparison between the simul ation and experiment has been made for 0.59 J impact. The damage has been i dentified as interlaminar delamination coupled with matrix failure from the simulation, which has been validated by the experiment. It has been reveal ed from both the simulation and experiment that there is a small non-delami nation area immediately adjacent to the impact point, between the two halve s of the peanut shape, because stress field in this area does not reach a f ailure level to induce any delamination. It is also noted that further work may be needed more precisely to evaluate the length of the matrix crack. ( C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.