Progressive damage modeling and interface delamination of cross-ply laminates subjected to low-velocity impact

In this study, Hashin failure criteria were enhanced with Puck’s action plane concept to develop a user material model that can accurately predict the damage development inside the composite laminate when it is subjected to low-velocity impact. A simple cross-ply laminate [0/90]s was chosen to demonstrate the applicability of the material model. Experiments were also performed to observe the real behavior of the laminate. A good correlation between the experiment and simulation results was obtained in terms of peak force and displacement. However, the model under-predicted the absorbed energy, but the discrepancy decreased with the increase in impact energy. Moreover, the interface delamination study was performed by comparing the signatures in post-impact samples of the experiment and numerical simulation. It was observed that the experimentally detected delamination area was closely predicted by the simulation. It was further noticed that the top interface delamination increases faster than bottom interface delamination. Furthermore, the total energy absorbed by the laminates in intralaminar and interlaminar damage modes and friction effects were found to be closely matching with the final absorbed energy of the laminate. Hence, it was seen that the developed finite element model was able to closely capture the behavior occurring in experiments.