TRANSIENT IMPACT RESPONSE OF A FIBER COMPOSITE LAMINATE

The propagation of stress waves resulting from a line-load surface impact on laminated plates of a fibre-reinforced composite materials is examined. The plate consists of four identical plies perfectly bonded together. The composite is modelled as a transversely isotropic, homogenous, elastic material with the direction of transverse isotropy parallel to the fibres. The four plies are arranged in a symmetric cross-ply configuration. The procedure involves finding an exact solution to the system of governing equations appropriate to each layer and matching the solutions across the interfaces and satisfying the appropriate boundary conditions at the upper and lower surfaces of the plate. A combination of transform and matrix techniques is employed. Numerical results are presented for the normal displacement at various times after the impact and at a variety of depths.