Transient Dynamic Analysis of Laminated Composite Plate Subjected to Low-Velocity Impact

This paper concerns with the transient response of composite laminates subjected to low-velocity impact. A drop weight impact tower is used for the low velocity impact study and the contact force during impact is measured with a piezoelectric force transducer. Composite laminates, made of E-glass/epoxy and having (0/90/0)s stacking sequence, are considered, Numerical results of E-glass/epoxy cross-ply laminates under three different impact velocities (l m/sec, 2 m/sec and 3 m/sec) and two different impactor masses (135 g and 2600 g) are investigated with 3DIMPACT computer code. Contact force between the impactor and composite laminate, maximum transverse displacement at the center are plotted as functions of time and predicted delamination shapes and sizes are found numerically. The resulting data from the drop-weight tests and computer code provide specific information about the effect of the impactor velocity and impactor mass, all of which have a great influence on the impact response of composite laminates.