Ultimate Strength and Failure Process of Composite Laminated Plates Subjected to Low-Velocity Impact

A steel impactor was used in drop tests to impact composite laminated plates constructed using carbon-epoxy prepregs. The impact force and strain histories were recorded as well. Damage incurred from a low-velocity impact much closely resembled that from static crushing. This investigation creates a user-defined material subroutine (UMAT) of the FEM software ABAQUS, using our method of stiffness progressive modification, such that extreme failure is accurately simulated until the plates are thoroughly crushed. Using the results from the static crush simulation and the aspect of energy conservation, the dynamic impact force given with different impactor masses and initial velocities can be rapidly predicted while making significant savings in computing resources.