Low Velocity Transverse Normal Impact of Graphite Epoxy Composite Laminates

A theoretical-experimental investigation has been conducted to deter mine the response of composite structural elements to low speed, trans verse impact. Experimental results of this investigation showed that as the velocity of impact is increased it requires less impactor kinetic energy to produce damage. A structural dynamic response model consisting of a uniform Bernoulli- Euler beam and a rigid impactor mass was employed. Displacement and velocity distributions were assumed as initial conditions and the solution was expanded in the eigenfunctions of the free vibration problem using Galerkins' method. Good correlation of experimental results with the results of this analyt ical structural dynamic model have been obtained over the velocity range from 0 to 6 m/s.