Numerical and experimental study for damage characterization of composite laminates subjected to low-velocity impact

In this paper, the damage evolution and the relationship between damage characterization and impact energy of Carbon/Epoxy composite laminates are discussed. To achieve this purpose, low-velocity impact tests according to ASTM standard are conducted and the data, like impact force, are obtained. Based on ABAQUS / Explicit, a finite element model is established. In the model, the laminate is created by the solid element to better descript the intra-laminar stress and the inter-laminar damage and the cohesive element are introduced to model the interface. By comparing the experiment and simulation, the validity of the simulation is verified. After simulating the impacts with a series of energy values, this paper studies surface pit depth, delamination area and matrix damage area and provides theoretical support for damage research and non-destructive testing.