Numerical analysis of influence factors on low-velocity impact damage of stitched composite laminates

Abstract

A 3D dynamic finite-element model is proposed in this paper to simulate the damage development process of stitched laminates subjected to low-velocity impact. The strain-based Hashin criteria and a sudden degradation scheme are employed to determine the intra-laminar damage initiation and evolution; a mix-mode bilinear constitutive model is adopted to evaluate the inter-laminar delamination damage. The predicted numerical results agree well with the available experimental data, thus validating the proposed damage analysis model. Moreover, the influence factors, including the thickness of laminates, stitching density, diameter of stitching thread and strength of stitching thread, are analyzed and discussed in detail.

Keywords:

• Stitched laminates
• low-velocity impact
• damage analysis
• influence factor
• finite-element modeling

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province [grant number BK20160786]; Natural Science Research Project of Colleges and Universities in Jiangsu Province [grant number 17KJB130004]; and Jiangsu Government Scholarship for Overseas Studies.