Mechanical Behavior and Damage Accumulation of Laminated and Sandwich Composites Under Repeated Impact: Experimental and Numerical Analysis

Composite materials are often exposed to repeated impact in their industrial applications, which can have serious consequences on their mechanical performance. Therefore, the key purpose of this investigation is to study experimentally and numerically the response of laminated composites and sandwich composites. This involves evaluating their mechanical response and the damage accumulation under repeated impacts. The numerical models developed using the ABAQUS/Explicit software were validated against experimental data obtained through a modified Charpy test, where initial impact energies of 30 J, 40 J, and 50 J were applied to the two composite types under investigation. This was achieved by comparing commonly used parameters such as absorbed energy and induced energy. The results confirm that the first impact is responsible for the damage and that the repetition of the impact has no fundamental effect on the shape of the damage, but slightly increases its surface area. The numerical results made it possible to accurately predict the absorbed energy values and traces of damaged areas observed experimentally.