LS-Dyna Impact Modelling on Carbon Fibre Reinforced Polymers (CFRP) Composite Aircraft Panel with Various Impactors †

Abstract

In the aviation industry, the usage of composites is increasing because of their unique feature in terms of damage tolerance and high structural integrity. It inspires the researcher to focus on dynamic behaviour of subsonic aircraft hat-shaped CFRP composite panels using the LS-Dyna tool to prove its excellent impact behaviour with the help of spherical, ogival and conical impactors. High-velocity impact simulations conducted in this research work duplicate the Foreign Object Damage on aircraft panels. The impact load locations are identified from the literature and notable damage features such as stresses, delamination length, internal energy absorbed, resultant force, delamination zone, resultant acceleration and resultant velocity are compared for the chosen impactor shapes. The elastic and plastic failure zones are displayed very clearly in the results to avoid any further damage in the future. All results help to understand the composite shell behaviour and different damage patterns.