Numerical Study on Perforation Characteristics of Carbon-Fiber Reinforced Composite Laminates Subjected to Impact Loading

Carbon fiber reinforced composite has gained a huge popularity as a protective material against impact loading due to its excellent properties such as light weight, high specific strength and high specific modulus. Determining perforation characteristics of fiber reinforced composite laminates is an integral part for the design of protective civil and military structures. In this work, the perforation characteristics (ballistic limit, residual velocity, perforation energy) of carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) laminates were determined with the help of experimental tests and numerical simulations. CFRP laminates with four different fiber orientations, each of two different thicknesses (1 and 2 mm) were considered in this study. These laminates were impacted by conical, hemispherical and ogive nose projectiles made of steel for a wide range of velocities. The high velocity impact experiments were carried out using pneumatic gun setup. A numerical model was developed in ABAQUS/EXPLICIT using Hashin damage criteria to understand the perforation behavior of CFRP sheets under high velocity impact. The accuracy of the numerical model was assessed by comparing its prediction with experimental results of cross-ply laminates. The perforation characteristics predicted with the help of numerical simulations were in good agreement with the experimental test results. Effective ply configuration was achieved in terms of energy absorption and damage resistance for better performance under impact loading. The influence of shape of the projectile, ply orientation, thickness at different impact velocities on energy absorbing capacity of CFRP laminates were discussed.