Tensile post-impact behaviour of thin carbon/epoxy and glass/epoxy hybrid woven laminates - Part II: Numerical study

This article concerns the modelling of post-impact damage propagation in thin woven composite laminates. Simulations of low velocity impacts and post-impact quasi-static tension are performed on single-material and hybrid laminates. The modelling is based on the semi-continuous approach implemented into the explicit finite element code RADIOSS. The bundles are modelled with rod elements and a specific damageable shell element is used to stabilize this truss structure. Improvements are brought with the introduction of a compressive failure criterion for the rod elements and the development of a pseudo-plastic law with damaging for in in-plane shear. The results provided by the modelling well correlates the experimental observations in terms of damage propagation and load-displacement curves for all the configurations studied.