REVIEW OF PREDICTIVE METHODS FOR CAPTURING ONSET OF DAMAGE AND INITIAL DELAMINATION IN CARBON FIBRE REINFORCED POLYMER LAMINATES SUBJECT TO IMPACT

Composite damage modelling and analysis capabilities of Abaqus and LS-Dyna are investigated. A comparison of the modelling methodologies to capture the onset of damage and delamination in the constitutive models used in these codes is presented. A quasi-isotropic carbon fibre reinforced polymer laminate is modelled under a low-energy impact scenario to examine its dynamic response. Hashin, Puck and Cuntze's criteria are implemented for assessing intra-laminar damage in Abaqus in the linear elastic regime without damage evolution, with Virtual Crack Closure Technique being used for inter-laminar failure. In LS-Dyna, the Chang-Chang criteria are used for the intra-lamina failure with damage evolution, whereas delamination is captured using cohesive zone model and Tiebreak contact algorithm. The implementations carried out by both finite element software result in a modelling work well set to analyse and predict the impact response at the initial stages of delamination and damage within the plies. Results obtained using Abaqus demonstrate that the delamination has a higher influence over the failure mechanism of unidirectional plies, as the fracture plane is considered in the failure criteria. On the other hand, LS-Dyna shows a good correlation between the contact force produced from the impact when compared to the force recorded from the experiment. The composite damage criteria used in both finite element codes overall predict stiffer results when compared with the experimental data, however remain in close agreement with each other.