Modelling impact damage in composite laminates: A simulation of intra- and inter-laminar cracking

Composite structures mainly consist of continuous reinforced fibres in a polymer resin matrix and exhibit a relatively brittle behaviour and complicated damage pattern that develops internally and becomes difficult to detect. This paper provides a damage model that is implemented in a commercially available finite element package to simulate a low velocity impact event and successfully capture the internal damage pattern in the form of resin cracking, axial splitting and delamination and its extent that can be used to estimate residual strength and stiffness properties of carbon fibre/epoxy composite laminates used in aircraft construction.