International Journal of Mechanical And Production Engineering, ISSN: 2320-2092, Volume- 5, Issue-9, Sep.

-2017
http://iraj.in
ANALYSIS OF LAMINATED COMPOSITE PLATE UNDER LOW
VELOCITY IMPACT USING ABAQUS
1
ANKUSH DHADWALIA, 2AMAN KHURANA, 3RAMESH PANDEY
1
M. Tech. student, Department of Applied Mechanics, MNNIT, Allahabad, U. P., 211004
2
M. Tech. student, Department of Applied Mechanics, MNNIT, Allahabad, U. P., 211004
3
Assistant Professor, Department of Applied Mechanics, MNNIT, Allahabad, U. P., 211004
E-mail: [email protected],[email protected], [email protected]

Abstract - In present work the performance of laminated composite plate under impact of low velocity is analyzed. In order
to study behaviour of stress distribution in laminated composite plate due to low velocity impact finite element based model
is constructed in ABAQUS. The symmetric plate consider is simply supported from all sides and impact of indentor is obtain
at midpoint of the plate. Analysis is performed by varying parameters like shape of indentor, velocity of impact, different
layup configuration and boundary conditions. Results obtained are well confined within limits of already existing
experimental results. It is observed that conical shape indentor gives maximum amount of deflection and stresses for same
velocity as compared to another indentor.

Index terms - Low Velocity Impact, ABAQUS, In-plane Shear Stresses, Laminated Composite Analysis.

I. INTRODUCTION plane failures are determined by using quadratic

failure technique. Kwon et al. [4] develop a numerical
In recent trends use of laminated composite plates has model of composite structure to analyze the
been increased to a great extend because of its progressive damage under the impact of external
numerous advantages like high strength, low weight loading. In order to analyze the damage a micro and
and high stiffness. Other main advantages are their macro mechanical based technique was developed.
low modulus of elasticity, low coefficient of thermal Anil Kumar et al. [5] determine the response of
expansion, high flexibility. Specific application various types of composite panel made up of
where these are used includes mechanical structure, graphite/epoxy and glass/epoxy. Further the
aerospace and automobile industry. Analysis of low behaviour of laminated composite plate under various
velocity impact on composite plate is very important failure mode, energy absorbed and failure mechanism
as under these phenomena small cracks are produced have been studied. They concluded that composite
in composite structure which are not visible to naked panel which is made up of graphite epoxy absorbed
eyes. These cracks reduce stiffness and strength of more energy as compared to composite panel made
structure in which composite plate is used [1]. There up of glass epoxy.
are many factors on which strength of laminate Pradhan et al. [6] have developed three dimensional
composite plate depends such as velocity of impactor, finite model to determine the damage developed in
mass of impactor, shape of impactor, stacking graphite epoxy laminate due to low velocity impact.
sequence and different boundary conditions of Further dynamic analysis is performed to determine
composite plate. The analysis of laminated composite forces, displacement, stress and strain developed
plate under low velocity impact is not an easy task throughout laminate.
because different types of failure like matrix failure, After above literature survey it is observed that most
fiber failure and delamination occur during the of work is focused on damage of composite laminated
impact. Many researches have been carried out to plate due to low velocity impact but shape of indentor
analyze behaviour of laminated composite plate under striking the plate is not consider. In present work user
different velocity impact. Balasubramni.V et al. [2] friendly finite element software ABAQUS v6.14 is
perform low velocity impact on simply supported opted to analyze the performance of laminated
plate for analyzing the stress distribution due to composite plate under low velocity impact.
impact on composite using hemispherical impactor. Behaviour of laminated composite plate is analyzed
Further a numerical investigation is carried out to by varying lay-up configuration, boundary
analyze the performance of plate under various conditions, velocity of impactor. Further different
parameters like velocity and mass of impactor, layup types of impactor like hemispherical, conical and
configuration and different boundary condition. cylindrical are used for impact analysis on laminated
Ashish et al. [7] develop analytical model for composite plate.
analyzing the unidirectional laminated composite
plate subjected to low velocity impact. The state of III. MODELING IN ABAQUS V6.14
stress develop in plate due to low velocity impact is
calculated by using a technique known as model A laminated composite plate of lay-up configuration
solution technique. Further the interlaminar and in- [012]s with the thickness of each ply is 0.25 mm. A

Analysis of Laminated Composite Plate under Low Velocity Impact using ABAQUS

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 International Journal of Mechanical And Production Engineering, ISSN: 2320-2092, Volume- 5, Issue-9, Sep.-2017
http://iraj.in
square plate is 150 mm x 150 mm x 6 mm is consider
for observation under impact. The properties of
composite used in modeling are represented in Table Where, F = maximum force in Newton (N)
1 [3]. The indentor used for analysis is made up of m = mass of impactor in kg
steel having mass 4.7 kg and radius 6.5 mm. Other v = velocity of impactor in m/s
properties of indentor are: density  = 7800 kg/m3
Young’s Modulus, E = 210 GPa, Poisson ratio,  =
0.3. Laminated composite plate is meshed with
hexahedral element having 8 nodes. This element is Obtained results are confined within limits and good
normally used for square plate. The surface contact in agreement is observed between simulation results and
between indentor and plate is build up by assigning analytical solution available in Ashish M. et al. [3].
interaction properties. To perform low velocity
impact ABAQUS V6.14 Explicit dynamics software
is used.

(a)

Table 1 Properties of E-glass/epoxy laminated composite plate

in three perpendicular directions, X,Y and Z.

Density of fiber  =1750 kg/m3 (b)

Volume fraction vf (%) = 0.4 Fig. 2. (a) Stresses and (b) deflection under impact

It is observed that maximum transverse and

longitudinal stresses are produced at the point where
indentor hit the composite plate.
The results obtained are within limit (0-6%) of
aberration hence numerical analysis with ABAQUS
v6.14 is almost same as analytical results.
A convergence is performed for stresses by varying
global mess size in order to obtain the optimal
number of elements required to get the accurate
results so that less error can be obtained with the
Fig. 1 Representation of indentor and composite plate result reported in Ashish M. et al. [3]. The stresses of
FEM technique is used to find out state of stress in laminated composite plate converges approximate at
plate, contact forces between indentor and plate and 150000 elements.
displacement at different velocities of indentor during
analysis.

III. VALIDATION OF RESULTS

The results of transverse stresses (σx), longitudinal

stresses (σy) and deflection at the point of contact of
indentor and plate is validated from Ashish M. et al.
[3]. Hemispherical indentor with velocity 1.68 m/s is
used in impact analysis. The composite plate is
simply supported at four edges. Energy consumed in Table 2 Validation of results in terms of transverse and
the impact is 6.6 J. Amount of force is calculated by longitudinal stresses and deflection produces in bottom layer of
FEM as: plate.

Analysis of Laminated Composite Plate under Low Velocity Impact using ABAQUS

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 International Journal of Mechanical And Production Engineering, ISSN: 2320-2092, Volume- 5, Issue-9, Sep.-2017
http://iraj.in
(a) [0/90/45/-45]s layup configuration. Analysis in terms
of stresses and deflection is made.

Fig. 5 Stresses in composite laminate

(a)

(b)
Fig. 6 Variation of (a) longitudinal and (b) transverse stresses
in top and bottom layer of unidirectional composite laminate

(b)
Fig. 4. Variation of (a) longitudinal and (b) transverse stresses
in top and bottom layer of composite laminate from point of
impact to edges of simply supported plate.

IV. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Case 1 : First of all variation of thickness of

composite plate along with different shape of
indentor is considered with different layup
configuration. In first case we consider hemispherical Fig. 7 Variation of deflection and (b) stresses in [0/90/45/-45]
indentor on unidirectional composite [04]s and composite laminates

Analysis of Laminated Composite Plate under Low Velocity Impact using ABAQUS

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 International Journal of Mechanical And Production Engineering, ISSN: 2320-2092, Volume- 5, Issue-9, Sep.-2017
http://iraj.in
Case 2 : parametric study by considering indentor as
cylindrical in shape.

(a)

(b)

Fig. 8 Variation of stresses in composite laminates (a)

unidirectional [04]s (b) cross ply [0/90/45/-45]s (c) simulation
result

Case 3 : Parametric study by consider indentor as

conical in shape.
In this case we consider conical impactor with
Fig. 9 (a) Deflected shape of composite laminate (b) stresses in
velocity 1.68 m/sec. Plate is simply supported at ends laminate (c) stress variation in laminate and (d) displacement
and variation of stresses and deflection along the of laminate from point of contact to edge of laminate in S-S-S-S
length of plate is analyzed.

Analysis of Laminated Composite Plate under Low Velocity Impact using ABAQUS

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 International Journal of Mechanical And Production Engineering, ISSN: 2320-2092, Volume- 5, Issue-9, Sep.-2017
http://iraj.in
In above results we observe the symmetric variation Table 3 shows analysis of impact for simply
of stresses and deflection along the length of plate in supported boundary condition of plate with different
simply supported boundary condition. Different shape of impactor and different layup configuration.
shapes of indentor are used in impact analysis.

Table 3 Comparison of different parameters with different indentor

Analysis is performed for the different velocities of Further, it is concluded that deflection produced in
indentor. Effect of velocity on composite plate in composite plate depends upon the stacking sequence
simply supported boundary condition is observed. and thickness of plate. Cylindrical shape indentor
Following table shows the velocity effect on plate causes plugging, conical indentor causes petaling and
hemispherical impactor causes tensile stretching in
composite laminates.

REFERENCES
[1] Cantwell, W.J., Morton, J.,1991 “The impact resistance of
the composite materials”., are view, Composites22, p.347
[2] Balasubramni.V, Rajendra Boopthy.S., and Vasudevan. R.,
2013 “Numericalanalysis of low velocity impact on
laminated composite plates”., IConDM.Vol. 64, pp, 1089-
1098
[3] Ashish Mishra, Naik, N.K., 2010 “Failure initiation in
Table 4 Variation of stresses and deflection at different velocity composite structures under low velocity impact Analytical
on composite plate in case of simply supported plate with studies”., Composite Structures, Vol,92, pp,436
hemispherical indentor. [4] Kwon, Y.W., Liu,C.T., 1997.Study of damage evolution in
composites using damage mechanics and micromechanics,
CONCLUSION Composite structure 38,p.133
[5] Anil Kumar, B., Shivanand, H.K., 2010. An Experimental
Investigation on Low Velocity Impact Response of
It is observed that stresses are distributed Composite Laminates, International Journal of Material
symmetrically along the length in top and bottom Physics 1,p.13
laminate. Stresses and deflection produced in [6] Pradhan,B.,Kumar,S.,2000. Finite Element analysis of low-
composite plate increases with increase in velocity. velocity impact damage in composite laminates, Journal of
Reinforced Plastics and Composite 19,p.322
Among the indentors used, conical indentor requires
[7] Richardson, M.O.W.,1996 Review of low velocity impact
least amount of energy during impact and causes
properties of composite part A27.
maximum stress and deflection in composite
laminate.

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