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mpact on laminated composite materials

Serge Abrate
Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Mechanics, University of
Missouri-Rolla, Rolia MO 65401

Laminated composite materials are used extensively in aerospace and other applications. With
their high specific modulus, high specific strength, and the capability of being tailored for a
specific application, these materials offer definite advantages compared to more traditional
materials. However, their behavior under impact is a concern, since impacts do occur during
manufacture, normal operations, or maintenance. The situation is critical for impacts which
induce significant internal damage, undetectable by visual inspection, that cause large drops in
the strength and stability of the structure. Impact dynamics, including the motion of both the
impactor and the target and the force developed at the interface, can be predicted accurately
using a number of models. The state of stress in the vicinity of the impact is very complex and
requires detailed analyses. Accurate criteria for predicting initial failure are generally not avail-
able, and analyses after initial failure are questionable. For these reasons, it can be said that a
general method for estimating the type and size of impact damage is not available at this time.
However, a large amount of experimental data has been published, and several important
features of impact damage have been identified. In particular, interply delaminations are known
to occur at the interface between plies with different fiber orientation. Their shape is generally
elongated in the direction of the fibers in the lower ply at that interface. The delaminated area is
known to increase linearly with the kinetic energy of the impactor after a certain threshold value
has been reached. The effect of impact damage on the properties of the laminate has obvious
implications for design and inspection of actual structures. Experimental results concerning the
residual strength of impact damaged specimens subjected to tension, compression, shear,
bending, and both static and fatigue loading are available. Analyses concentrate primarily on
predicting residual tensile and compressive strength. In order to fully understand the effect of
foreign object impact damage, one should understand impact dynamics and be able to predict
the location, type, and size of the damage induced and the residual properties of the laminate.
This article is organized along these lines and presents a comprehensive review of the literature
on impact of laminated composites, considering both experimental and analytical approaches.

INTRODUCTION in a small zone surrounding the contact area during the duration
of contact. Low velocity impact then refers to situations where,
This article presents a comprehensive review of the literature during the contact duration, the entire structure deforms as waves
concerning foreign object impact damage to composite materials. propagate to the boundary and are reflected back several times.
The study of this problem is motivated by practical situations The materials considered are fiber reinforced laminates and sheet
encountered in the aerospace industry and other fields in which molding compounds. Several survey articles appeared previously
these materials are used extensively. Low velocity impact occurs (Sun and Sierakowski, 1975; Moon, 1975; Takeda and Siera-
when tools are dropped on the structure during maintenance op- kowski, 1980; Sierakowski and Chaturvedi, 1983) and a discus-
erations or when debris is flying on the runway during take-off or sion of current issues in impact damage of composite laminates is
landing, for example. Different behavior is observed during bal- presented by Challenger (1986).
listic impacts, which are a concern with military applications, and Having generally defined the scope of this review, it may be
for hypervelocity impact of spacecraft by space debris. Gener- useful to state clearly which type of problems will not be covered.
ally, low velocity impacts are said to occur for impactor speeds Problems associated with aircraft crash landing or automotive
less than 100 m/s, and for hypervelocity impacts speeds larger vehicle crash tests are distinct from those of foreign object impact
than 1 km/s. However, other definitions are used. High velocity and are not considered here. Large deformations of rigid-plastic
sometimes refers to situations where complete penetration of the metal mairix composite beams under impact and the impact of
target is achieved. Other investigators consider that high velocity particles small enough to cause only surface erosion are not
impact occurs when the deformation of the structure is localized reviewed. The impact of a foreign object will be assumed to occur
on a beam, plate, or shell away from ply-drops, joints, stiffeners,
Transmitted by Associate Fditor Arthur Leissa and other discontinuities.

ASME Book No AMR091 $26.00


Appl Mech Rev vol 44, no 4, April 1991 155 © 1991 American Society of Mechanical Engineers

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156 Abrate: Laminated composite materials Appl Mech Rev vol 44, no 4, April 1991

mechanisms, and the development of appropriate mathematical


CONTENTS
models is essential for developing improved materials and design
INTRODUCTION 155 methods accounting for impact.
EXPERIMENTAL STUDIES 157 For a complete study of the impact of a laminate by an object
Impact generation 157 traveling with a given initial velocity, the time history and spatial
Response to impact by a mass 158 distribution of the forces developed at the target-impactor con-
Contact force measurements 158 tact zone must be determined. Then, an appropriate stress analy-
SIMPLIFIED ANALYSES 159 sis is performed to determine eventual failure modes and dam-
Spring-mass models 159 aged zones and to predict the residual properties of the laminate
Energy-balance models 159 after impact. The results of such an approach should agree with
Assumed force or initial conditions 160 experimental observations. The objective of this article is to as-
Wave propagation approach 161 sess the current state of the art in this area.
INDENTATION LAWS 162
Contact between two elastic solids First, the response of the structure to the impact of a mass will
162
Indentation of beams be considered. For experimental studies, gas guns, pendulums,
162
Indentation of plates drop-weight systems, and other setups are used to propel an
164
Contact between a sphere and a composite laminate 164 impactor to a controlled initial velocity. These various experi-
ANALYSIS OF LOW VELOCITY IMPACT 164 mental apparatus and techniques for measuring the dynamic con-
Impact on a half-space 164 tact force and the motion of the structure and impactor during
Impact on beams 165 impact are described. Mathematical models used for the predic-
Impact on plates 166 tion of the contact force and the structural response must ade-
impact on shells 167 quately represent the global motion of the structure, the dynamics
SCALING 167 of the impactor, and the local deformation in the contact region.
EXPERIMENTAL STUDIES OF IMPACT DAMAGE 168 Depending on several parameters, including impact velocity, ri-
Experimental methods for impact damage assessment 168 gidity of the target, mass of the impactor, and type of information
Observation of impact damage development 170 sought, models with various degrees of complexity can be used.
DAMAGE 171 For low velocity impacts, that is, when the contact duration is
Damage development 171 such that the structure responds quasistatically, spring-mass
Impact damage of SMC composites 173 models can be used to predict the contact force and displacement
Spall fracture 173 history at the impact point. In order to account for vibration of the
Damage size 173 structure, analytical models are used for simple cases, usually
EFFECT OF MATERIAL PROPERTIES 174 using the modal analysis approach. For more complex situations,
Effect of matrix properties 174 the finite element method is also used. Most studies consider only
EITect of fiber properties 175 spherical indentors, in which case wave effects in the impactor
EFFECT OF STACKING SEQUENCE AND TARGET can be neglected, and the sphere is modeled as a point mass. With
GEOMETRY 175 long cylindrical impactors, the dynamics of the impactor itself
DAMAGE PREDICTION 177 must be modeled adequately. For high velocity impacts, the re-
Analysis of impact stresses 177 sponse of the structure for durations of the order of the contact
Prediction of delaminations 177 time is very localized. In this case, using the modal analysis
Prediction of internal ply damage 179
method, a large number of modes need to be included to deter-
Resistance to ballistic perforation 179
mine the response, and the wave propagation approach may be
RESIDUAL PROPERTIES 179
179 more practical.
Residual tensile strength
Residual compressive strength 181 Local deformations in the contact zone are generally not in-
Delaminalion buckling 182 cluded in classical structural models for beams, plates, and shells.
Residual flexural strength 183 The indentation of the structure by the indentor is related to the
Residual shear strength 184 contact force in a highly nonlinear way. In some cases, the energy
Effect of impact on free vibration of laminated beams 184 involved in local deformation is negligible, and the local deforma-
HYPERVELOCITY IMPACT 184 tion can be neglected. In general, the impactor is assumed to be
CONCLUSION 185 connected to the structure by a nonlinear spring. The force inden-
REFERENCES 186
tation law is determined either theoretically or experimentally.
Due to the high cost of materials and manufacture, impact
tests are seldom performed on full scale prototypes but rather on
small size coupons. In order to relate test results to full scale
Although the impact of metal structures has long been inves- structures, scaling laws have been developed and will be dis-
tigated and is treated extensively in several texts (Goldsmith, cussed in this article.
1960; Johnson, 1972; Macaulay, 1987), extensive research is Impact damage generally consists of delaminations, matrix
now being conducted on impact of composite structures. The cracking, as well as fiber breakage. For low velocity impacts,
reason for this new activity is that failure modes of composites damage is usually not visually detectable but can result in sig-
are significantly different from those of metals. Impact damage of nificant strength reduction. It is then necessary to develop ex-
metal structures always starts from the surface and can be de- perimental techniques to detect the presence of damage and
tected by routine visual inspection. With composites, significant document its nature, size, shape, and through-the-thickness dis-
damage in the form of delaminations, matrix cracking, or fiber tribution, both during and after impact. These techniques, used
breakage can be present, cause very significant strength reduc- for in-service inspections to ensure structural safety and for re-
tions, and be totally undetectable by visual inspection. Stiffness search purposes, are reviewed. The type of impact-induced dam-
reductions are also observed, even though they are generally not age encountered with composite laminates and its development
as dramatic. Understanding of the impact phenomenon, damage and influence on the mechanical properties of the laminate are

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Appl Mech Rev vol 44, no 4, April 1991 Abrate: Laminated composite materials 157

discussed. Methods available to predict the occurrence of dam- other mechanisms (Cantwell and Morton, 1985b). The projectile
age, failure modes, size of the damaged area, and residual proper- then travels through the gun barrel and passes a speed sensing
ties are also reviewed. device while still moving inside the barrel or right at the exit.
The speed sensing device used by Qian and Swanson (1989)
consists of a single light emitting diode (LED) and a photo detec-
EX PERI M ENT A L STUDIES tor. As the projectile interrupts the light beam, the change in
signal produced by the sensor is analyzed to determine the veloc-
In this section, several experimental test setups employed for ity. Most experimental setups use two LED-photo sensor pairs
impact testing of composite materials are described. The overall (Joshi and Sun, 1985; Dan-Jumbo et al, 1989; Ross and Siera-
transient response to impact loadings is discussed in order to kowski, 1973; Takeda et al, 1981a). The output of the photocells
provide some background for the development of experimental is monitored on an oscilloscope and checked using a digital
techniques and mathematical models of the impact phenomenon. counter. The travel time between the two sensors located a fixed
distance apart is used to determine impact speed. Khetan and
Chang (1983) generated two parallel light beams with a 1 m W
Impact generation H e - N e laser that generated one light beam which was then split
Several basic types of apparatus are used to generate impact in into two using a partial mirror. Instead of using light beams,
order to simulate foreign object impact damage (Table I). Gas- Cantwell and Morton (1985b) placed two thin wires across the
gun systems are usually used to generate high impact speeds with barrel of the gun a fixed distance apart. The projectile velocity
small impactors. Several variants in implementation exist, but the was determined knowing the time required to break the wires. A
main features common to all the systems are shown in Fig 1. High more sophisticated system described by Malvern et al (1987;
pressure compressed air is drawn into an accumulator to a given 1989) utilizes fiber optics to generate the two light beams and a
pressure controlled by a regulator. The air pressure is usually microprocessor to deduce the inbound speed of the impactor,
released by a solenoid valve, the breakage of a thin diaphragm or arrival time at the plate, the time when the rebounding projectile
leaves the initial front face of the target, and the rebound speed
through the sensor.
Many experiments are conducted with a drop-tower or a drop-
TABLE I. Articles including descriptions of the apparatus used to weight impact rig (Fig 2) which is suitable to simulate low veloc-
generate impact ity impact by a small mass. With other designs, a large mass is
guided by a rail during its free fall. Measurements of the impac-
tor velocity can be performed with the methods described pre-
Type References
viously. Hodgkinson et al (1982) used a laser-doppler veloci-
Gas-gun Cantwell and Morton (1985b) meter for precise measurements of the impactor during the entire
Dan-Jumbo et al (1989) contact event. Gupta and Chiang (1989) used laser speckle inter-
Hong and Liu (1989) ferometry to determine the displacement history of a cantilever
Husmanetal(1975) beam subjected to impact. Pendulum-type impact testers may
Joshi and Sun (1985) consist of a steel ball hanging from a string (Doyle, 1984a,b;
Khetan and Chang (1983)
Liu(1988)
Malvern ctal (1987; 1989)
Morris and Smith (1971)
Qian and Swanson (1989)
Ross and Sierakowski (1973)
Sharma(1981)
Takamatsu eta! (1986)
Takedaetal(1981a)
Taylor (1987)
Wu and Springer (1988a)
FIG 1. Gas gun: (1) air filter, (2) pressure regulator, (3) air tank, (4)
Drop-weight Cantwell etal (1986) valve, (5) tube, (6) velocity measuring device, (7) specimen.
Curtis ctal (1984)
Gres?.czuk(1975; 1982)
Greszcz.uk and Chao (1977)
Lai (1982)
Levin (1986) TZT
Wyrick and Adams (1988)
Pendulum Buynak etal (1988)
Cordcll and Sjoblom (1986)
Doyle (1984a; 1987a)
Sjoblom (1987)
Sjoblom etal (1988)
Stcllbrink (1983)
Flyer plate Reed and Schuster (1969)
Schuster and Reed (1970)
Takeda etal (1986; 1987)
Cantilever Lal(l983a,b; 1984)
Hopkinson-lypc pressure bar Li and Harding (1987) FIG 2. Drop weight tester: (1) magnet, (2) impactor, (3) holder, (4)
specimen.

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158 Abrate: Laminated composite materials Appl Mech Rev vol 44, no 4, April 1991

LLLLLU / / / / UJJ in. wide and VA in. thick impacted by a 7/g in. diameter pendulum
ball. The contact duration was measured to be 100 (is. An inter-
ferogram taken 12.5 (is after impact showed the deformation to
be nearly axisymmetric with a wavefront located at about 1 in.
from the center of the beam. The second interferogram, taken 25
(is after impact, shows that the deformation changed from being
a two-dimensional surface to being one-dimensional in nature
with waves radiating to the left and right. The fringe pattern on
each interferogram is analyzed to determine the transverse dis-
placements at each time step. Results are in agreement with
predictions obtained using a Timoshenko beam model. The fact
that theory and experiments agreed less well at times t = 12.5 and
25 (is was attributed to the two-dimensional nature of the initial
deformation, whereas the Timoshenko beam theory assumed
FIG 3. Pendulum tube impactor (Stellbrink, 1983): (I) impactor, (2)
one-dimensional behavior.
specimen holder, (3) specimen.
Daniel et al (1979) studied the wave propagation characteris-
tics of composite laminates under high velocity impact. Unidirec-
tional and angle ply boron-epoxy and graphite--epoxy laminated
plates were impacted with -Vie in. rubber balls at veloc ties up to
250 m/s. Strain gauges mounted on the surface and embedded in
the laminate were used to determine the characterist cs of the
induced strain pulses. The predominant wave is a flexural one,
propagating at different velocities in different directions, pre-
ceded by a small in-plane tensile wave. The flexural wave veloc-
/y~rrr7T7T7T7TrT7T77T7TT7TT77T7TTTT7 ity is higher in the higher modulus direction. As the pulse travels
FIG 4. Hopkinson-lype pressure bar: (I) projectile, (2) input bar, (3) away from the impact point, it is subjected to both material and
strain gauges, (4) specimen. geometric attenuation. The peak strain experienced at a distance
r from the impact point was shown to follow the equation
£max = ae~Lxl4r, (1)
where \/vr accounts for geometric attenuation, and the coeffi-
cient of material attenuation k was found to be equal to 0.125
cm' 1 for unidirectional boron—epoxy laminates.
Takeda et al (1981c) studied the propagation of elastic waves
in ballistically impacted laminated plates before delamination.
=£L The time history of the deformation was recorded using surface
mounted and embedded strain gauges. For glass-epoxy plates,
central impact by a hard blunt-nosed impactor produced several
FIG 5. Cantilever-type apparatus: (1) flexible beam, (2) accelerome- types of waves, the dominant one being a flexural wave. Wave
ler, (3) mass, (4) specimen. speeds were measured in different directions, and good agree-
ment with predicted values was observed.

C o n t a c t force m e a s u r e m e n t s
1987a,b), or a heavier instrumented projectile equipped Fig 3
with force transducers, or velocity sensors may be used (Stell- An important aspect in the analysis of impact is to determine
brink, 1983; Buynak etal, 1988; Sjoblom, 1987). contact force. The dynamic contact force can be measured by
Li and Harding (1987) used a Hopkinson-type pressure bar including a force transducer in the impactor (Tan and Sun, 1985;
technique (Fig 4), and Lai (1983a,b; 1984) used a cantilever-type Sjoblom et al, 1988), by using an accelerometer mounted on the
impactor (Fig 5) in which a 1 -in. diameter steel ball with an impactor (Lai, 1983a; 1984), or by measuring the target response
accelerometer on top is fixed at the end of a fiberglass canti- using strain gauges or position transducers.
levered rod. The thin flyer plate technique is used to study spall Doyle (1984a,b; 1987a,b) determined the contact force history
damage caused by one-dimensional stress pulses (Table I). In a from strain gauge measurements. Impacts of an aluminum beam
typical arrangement, a thin flyer plate is accelerated by the explo- by a steel sphere were considered, first using a Bernoulli--Euler
sion of a thin aluminum foil. beam model (Doyle, 1984a), and then including the effect of
shear deformation (Doyle, 1984b). The procedure was extended
to determine the contact force history during impact of isotropic
Response to i m p a c t by a mass plates (Doyle, 1987a) and orthotropic plates (Doyle, 1987b).
Experiments have been conducted to determine the type of waves Whiston (1984a,b) presented a technique to extract impact
involved during impact and which dominates. This knowledge is force-time history and impact site location. A spectral transfer
useful in the development of mathematical models and experi- function is derived for the Timoshenko beam model so that the
mental techniques. Ross and Sierakowski (1975) reviewed much Fourier transform of the contact force is equal to the Fourier
of the earlier work on the propagation of elastic waves in fiber transform of the acceleration multiplied by this transfer function.
reinforced composites. Beam acceleration transients propagating along the beam, mea-
Aprahamian et al (1971) used holographic interferometry to sured by accelerometers, are then spectrally inverted to yield the
record transverse waves propagating in a long aluminum beam 1 contact force history and the impact location.

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Appl Mech Rev vol 44, no 4, April 1991 Abraie: Laminated composite materials 163

TABLE III. Indentation of beams by rigid indentors the nondimensional contact length
c = c/l, (46)
Boundary Indentor
conditions Material shape References and the beam stiffness coefficients
D,=£,/(l-v?2), (47)
Simply Isotropic Cylindrical Keer and Miller (1983b)
supported Sankar and Sun (1983) D2 = 2Eil(kx + Xi). (48)
Sankar(1987)
X\ and Xi are the roots of the equation
Ortho- Cylindrical Sankar (1989a,b)
tropic Keer and Ballarini (1983a) S,,X4 - (2S.2 + S66)X2 + Sn = 0, (49)
Sun and Sankar (1985)
where the Sij's are the components of the compliance matrix of
Clamped- Isotropic Cylindrical Keer and Miller (1983b) the material (Sn = l/Ei, Si7=\IE2, Sn = -\\ilE\, Sm=\IG\2).
clamped Sankar and Sun (1983) Figure 9 indicates that, for small indentations, the contact pres-
Ortho- Cylindrical Keer and Ballarini (1983a) sure follows a Hertzian distribution but then differs significantly
tropic as the contact area becomes larger. To explain this trend, one can
Cantilever Isotropic Cylindrical Keer and Silva (1970) simply consider the mechanics of a beam in the contact region.
Keer and Schonberg (1986a) As the beam wraps around the cylindrical indentor, its curvature
is constant in the contact zone. This implies that the bending
Flat Keer and Schonberg (1986a) moment must be constant in that region, and, as in the four point
Ortho- Cylindrical Keer and Schonberg (1986b) bending test, loading consists of two concentrated forces applied
tropic Sankar (1989a) at the ends of the contact zone. The nondimensional contact force
Flat Keer and Schonberg (1986b) is given by
P = c2/( 1 + 20.25B?2 - 52.55?" - 229.6875B2?8) (50)
and is related to the actual contact force P by
thotropic beam following the same approach as in Sankar (1987). P = APRInDibl2. (51)
The problem of smooth contact between a rigid cylinder and a
For a cantilever beam under a cylindrical indentor (Fig 10), the
simply supported orthotropic beam was formulated in terms of an
nondimensional contact pressure distribution and contact force arc
integral equation which was then solved numerically. Sankar
given by
(1989a) provided closed form solutions for the indentation of
orthotropic beams using the formulation presented in 1989b. The MBp
(l-x2)m l-P(l-4F). ^ (52)
results presented by the various investigators are in excellent + 3P
agreement, and their discussion is facilitated by simply consider-
ing the expressions presented by Sankar (1989a). For simply
supported beams centrally loaded by a rigid cylindrical indentor (53)
1 - 3.75S? 2 - 6p + 228B2?6/(1 + 3P) - 3p 2 '
(Fig 8), the nondimensional contact stress is given by
and the position of the contact center is given by
p = (1 - J 2 ) , Q [ 1 - ^(1 - 4 ? 2 ) 1 . (41)
& = (-!+ <\VV9WBxi)mPB. (54)
The nondimensional contact pressure p is related to the actual
contact pressure p by Keer and Ballarini (1983a) and Sun and Sankar (1985) studied
the contact between a rigid cylinder and an initially stressed
p = (nbc/2P)p(x), (42) orthotropic beam on simple supports and with clamped ends. All
where
(3 = 8.75fi? (43)

is a nondimensional parameter related to the beam nondimen-


sional parameter

re Di
5 = (44)
32 D, h
V J
the nondimensional coordinate
cos 30° - — — —
x = x/c. (45)

2R

3
y^rzy
2C
7\
Ncm-Dimenslonal Distance
FIG 9. Normal pressure under a cylindrical indentor in contact with a
FIG 8. Indentation of simply supported beam by cylindrical indentor. simply supported beam.

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160 Abrate: Laminated composite materials Appl Mech Rev vol 44, no 4, April 1991

Shivakumar et al (1985a) also presented an energy-balance Neglecting shear and membrane deformation, this approach re-
model for the impact of a laminated circular plate by a mass M duces to that of Greszczuk (1982), and Eq (12) can be written as
with an initial velocity V. The kinetic energy of the mass before
MV2 = P2/Kb + \[P5/n2]m. (13)
impact is stored into energy of deformation of the contact region
Ev, strain energy due to bending and shear deformation Ei,s, and Equations (8) and (12) respectively give the maximum force and
strain energy due to membrane deformation E,„, maximum deflection during impact. T o determine the contact
duration to, consider that at each instant in time
\MV1 = EC + Ehs + Em. (5)
6c=Vi-V2, (14)
The contact energy is given by
where vi is the velocity of the impactor and vi = w the velocity of
Ec = P da, (6) the structure at the contact point. The contact force is given by
J
o
F = nam = Kp8 = Mv, (15)
where contact force is related to indentation a by
Combining Eqs (14) and (15), the following equation is obtained:
P = no"2 (7)
4n - nau2a2 + \nama2 + K„d = Kp(n/M)am, (16)
and n is a function of the material and geometrical properties of
the plate and impactor. Expressions for n for contact between a The maximum force occurs when <x = 0. Equation (16) can be
spherical isotropic indentor and a transversely isotropic plate, due integrated numerically, starting with initial conditions a = 0 and
to Conway (1967a), will be given later. The force deflection a = V at time t = 0, until a = 0, which corresponds to to/2.
relation for a circular plate is written as Razi and Lindsay (1987) used an energy-balance model for
isotropic cylindrical shells subjected to the impact of the mass.
P = KhsW + Kmw\ (8) For simple support, the static rigidity of the shell at the impact
where /0„ is the effective stiffness due to bending and shear, point, Kp, is used in Eq (13). Bert and Birman (1988) presented an
energy-balance model to analyze the response of prestressed cy-
1 1 1 lindrically curved composite structures subjected to low velocity
(9)
Khs Kt, Ks' impact. The kinetic energy of the small mass hitting a thin circu-
Expressions for K.%, Kb, and Km, the shear, bending, and mem- lar cylindrical panel with an initial velocity V is set equal to the
brane stiffnesses, are given for several types of boundary condi- total strain energy in the panel at maximum response. The equiv-
tions (Table II). The effective shear stiffness is given by alent stiffness of the panel subjected to a transverse load at the
impact point is determined statically, assuming that the load P is
4H Er 4 a uniformly distributed over a small area. The effect of using vari-
Ks- Gzrh a + lOg (10)
Er —AWr-Gzr 3 a,- ous first-approximation shell theories was found to be small.
Christoforou et al (1987; 1989) used a single degree of freedom
where a is the radius of the piate and a, is the radius of the contact
model to study the impact of a large mass on a cylindrical shell.
area. The first term in Eq (8) is the force associated with bending
The static nonlinear force deflection curve obtained experimen-
shear deformation and the second term the force resisted by
tally was used to determine the nonlinear stiffness.
membrane deformation. Therefore,

Ehs = \Ki,sw\ Em = \Kmw\ (11)


A s s u m e d force or initial conditions
Substituting into Eq (5), the energy-balance equation becomes
In order to gain some basic understanding of impact, several
MV2 = KhsW2 + \KmW* + 'l\(K),sW + Kmw-fln2Y (12)
investigators assumed a certain variation of the contact force and
The deflection w is calculated by solving Eq (12) using the the form of its distribution over the contact area, while others
N e w t o n - R a p h s o n numerical technique. Several examples were considered only initial conditions.
treated to show that, as the impact velocity increases and plate McQuillen et al (1976) studied the impact response of a uni-
deflections become large, membrane effects become significant. form Bernoulli-Euler beam to central impact. The impactor is

TABLE II. Bending and membrane stiffness parameters of centrally loaded circular plates (Shivakumar et al, 1985)

Boundary conditions Bending stiffness Ki, Membrane stiffness parameters K„,

4ixE,/r (353 - I9hv)Tt£V/i


Clamped Immovable
3(1 -v 2 )a 2 648(1 -VrW

47CErtt?' \9\nErh
Movable
3(1 -v 2 )« 2 ~648ar
v?)«
nErh J 191 ., ,4 41 ,, l3 32,, ,o 4 0 , .
Simply supported Immovable — 47tE,/r 1 1 77Z (' + v'> + ^ v
;T"3
(3 + Vrfa 648 27 (' + ') + 7T (I + vry + — (1 + vr) + :
3(3 + vv)(l -vr)az
^•-~^- + 2(1 + Vr)3 + 8(1 + Vrf + 16(1 + Vr) + 16
1 -Vr

4nErh3 nEJi 191 „ , 4 41 „ Nl 32 ,, , 2 40 .. , 8


Movable •xri, v, N2 7,, ,4 77^ 0 + ^ " + — l + v r 3 + — ( l + v r ) 2 + — l + v r ) + -
3(3+ )'/•)( 1 - iy)fl a (3 + \\) [648 27 9 9 5

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Appl Mech Rev vol 44, no 4, April 1991 Abrate: Laminated composite materials 161

assumed to be attached to the beam after impact, and the system Using Fourier integral transforms, the equations of motion are
beam-mass is subjected to a velocity impulse transformed, and the solution obtained in that transformed do-
main is then inverted numerically.
»i'(.v,0) = V 8(L/2). (17)
Lee et al (1984) performed a three-dimensional dynamic finite
With this approach, indentation effects are neglected, even element analysis of a laminate using eight-node brick elements
though they might account for a significant fraction of impact and assuming the pressure distribution in the impact region to be
energy (Sun, 1977). given by
Sun and Sierakowski (1973a) analyzed jet engine blades with
p(x,y,t) = p(x,y)f(t) (25)
flexure-torsion coupling subjected to the impact of a mass. A
discretized beam model is developed accounting for centrifugal
1 for|A'!<0.5and|y|<0.5,
effects, and the impact event is incorporated as an initial condition. p{x,y) = 3 for |;r| > 0.5 and \y\> 0.5,
Sun and Grady (1988a) studied the impact of graphite-epoxy
laminates by a rubber ball at high speeds. In this case, the rubber where
ball undergoes large deformations, and the contact force cannot Po f t < T/2,
be modeled using Hertzian contact law; Instead, the following
f(t) = 2/?o(l -tlx) f T/2 < / < X,
0 f t>%.
approximation was used:
forO< t< to, The equations of motion were integrated numerically using the
[ Fa sin[w/tol
central difference method.
F(t) = F„ cos[jt(f - t0)l2{T - to)} for to <t<T, (18)
Ross et al (1985) performed a finite element analysis of a plate
0 for t > T,
subjected to impact loading using three-dimensional eight-node
where Fo is the maximum force, to the time at which the force elements with orthotropic material properties. The force-time
becomes maximum, and 7" the contact duration. relationship is taken as
Chow (1971) extended Timoshenko's beam theory to lami-
x(l-rj forr<f c ,
nated plates. The analysis of harmonic wave propagation in a F= (26)
plate governed by the equations of motion thus derived indicates 0 for t>tc,
that rotatory inertia effects are usually negligible. Using a La- where tc is the assumed contact duration.
place transform procedure, the response of a rectangular simply Relatively few investigators have studied the impact response
supported plate to an impulse given by of shells. Yao (1966) obtained analytical solutions for the tran-
sient response of isotropic cylindrical shells subjected to concen-
p(xy,t) = p08(x-x,)8(y-y,)8(t), 09) trated loads with various time histories. The impact by a small
is obtained as ball pendulum was modeled as a rectangular impulse in which the
/ ^ V V »»> • a a
• m n x
• nr contact pressure was taken as uniform over a rectangular area,
w(x,y,t) = > > —,-— sin timnt sin sin —ty, , (20)
the total impulse determined from the motion of the pendulum
where was used to determine contact force and the duration of the
impulse was estimated from experimental strain measurements.
4po . nmx\ . nnyi
amn = , sin sin —f—, Ramkumar and Thakar (1987) studied the response of a cylindri-
an a b
cal laminated panel subjected to a low velocity impact, assuming
h2 that the contact force varies linearly with time until initial failure
I + Omul limn occurs, that is,

For for t < tc,


bin = - Dn -mj4 + 2(D,2 + 2D«,) —2T-2 + Dn -7 F(f):
0 for t> tc,
(27)
Ph an b
a
and is distributed over a rectangular patch area.
t^nin — Ds. D.v
ph b2
Wave propagation approach
The effect of shear deformation on transient response of the plate
is shown to be significant by comparison to results of the classical Moon (1972) studied stress waves generated by transverse impact
laminated plate theory. of laminated plates using a modified version of Mindlin's plate
Ramkumar and Chen (1983a) used the laminated plate theory theory. The laminate is considered as a single anisotropic layer. It
developed by Whitney and Pagano (1970), including the effects is shown that both extensional and bending waves are generated,
of transverse shear and rotatory inertia. The contact force is and the magnitude of the wave velocities in different directions
assumed to increase linearly up to initial failure, to be uniformly and shape of the wave fronts are determined for several lay-ups.
distributed over a small rectangular area and is taken in the form Moon (1973b) used Mindlin's plate theory to perform stress wave
calculations in composite plates. To find the response to a con-
Cjt centrated transverse force, a Laplace transform in time and a
Or(.V, V, h/2, t) : XYT, (21) double Fourier transform in space variables are taken. The solu-
4(al/c)
tion obtained in the transformed space is inverted using a fast
for I ,v I < atlc Fourier transform (FFT) algorithm. The impact pressure distribu-
X(x,t) = (22) tion was taken as
for|.v|><7f/c,
/ -V ( - \ 7tf
for |y| < atlc 1 -2
Y(yj) •• (23) To
for \y\> atlc, a a
\ J V J J
for / < c f o r r < a a n d f <To, (28)
7(0 = (24)
for / > c. :0 for r > a or t > To.

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162 Abrate: Laminated composite materials Appl Mech Rev vol 44, no 4, April 1991

Using the same approach, Moon (1973a) also analyzed tran- I


1 - v? 1 - vi
sient stress waves in anisotropic plates subjected to a line impact (35)
E~ E2
with a pressure distribution of the form
The radius of the contact zone a, the relative displacement, and
Pu ?£ m_ the maximum contact pressure are then given by
q = - "2 1 + cos for | tj | < a and t < To
To
f
(29) a= 3 PR" (36)
<7 = 0 for \Q >a or t >To. AE
V )
Kim and Moon (1979) studied the impact of a laminate using a3 ( 9P1 1
the same general approach as in Moon (1973a,b), but this time (37)
16RE2
each layer was modeled as a Mindlin plate. For the example se- \ J
lected, a normal line impact is represented by the normal pressure
3F ( 6PE2 "]
(38)
Pj> 271/ 2na 2 '
Tt 3 /? 2
<7 = - 1 - cos • cos (30) V )
4 to
The force indentation law can be written as
With this approach, propagation of stress waves through the
P = noT (39)
thickness of the laminate can be analyzed.
l
Sun and Lai (1974) studied transient wave propagation in an 4 ,,, 4 R>
n = -ERV2 = - (40)
orthotropic plate subjected to impulses described by the pressure 3 3 (l-v?)/Ei + ( l - v ! ) / E 2 '
distribution
Willis (1966) studied Hertzian contact of anisotropic bodies
q = §(.v)W(0 (31) by a Fourier transform method and showed that the contact area
or is elliptical in the general case. For transversely isotropic materi-
q = 5(x)te', (32) als, the contact area is circular, and the contact-indentation law
has the functional form given by Eq (39).
where 8(.v) and H(t) are the Dirac delta function and the Heaviside
Contact between a flat rigid indentor and an orthotropic half-
function, respectively. For a single layer, solutions are obtained
space was studied by Conway (1955), and the contact between a
using the equations of motion from elasticity as well as a shear
sphere and an orthotropic half-space was studied by Conway et al
deformation plate theory (Whitney and Pagano, 1970). In both
(1967a). The contact pressure between a flat-ended indentor and
cases, the equations of motion are subjected to a Laplace trans-
an orthotropic half-plane having inclined principal axes is given
form in time and a Fourier transform in space. Both inversions are
by Conway (1967b), Dahan and Zarka (1977) obtained closed
performed numerically using an FFT algorithm. Good agreement
form solutions for the indentation of an orthotropic half-space
between the two approaches indicates that the plate theory used is
by a sphere. Greszczuk (1975) determined the pressure under a
adequate for the study of impact problems.
spherical indentor numerically using a finite element model for a
number of transversely isotropic materials.
INDENTATION LAWS
I n d e n t a t i o n of b e a m s
The contact force during impact of a structure by a foreign object
During the indentation of beams and plates, local deformations
and the pressure distribution over the contact area are a priori
similar to those observed during the indentation of a half-space
unknown and must be determined as part of the solution. It has
are superposed on to the overall deflection of the beam or plate.
generally been recognized since earlier work on impact of iso-
This can result in a very different pressure distribution in the
tropic beams that indentation of the structure by the impactor
contact zone, and has been investigated by many authors (Table
must be described accurately. Contact between an indentor and
III). The state of stress in the beam results from the combination
a laminate is a complex phenomenon. Local stresses in the con-
of the overall deformation of the beam and local deformations in
tact region and overall deflection of the structure are introduced
the contact area. Keer and Miller (1983c) obtained a solution for
simultaneously.
the indentation of a finite layer. This solution was then used
by Keer and co-workers to study the indentation of beams. Keer
C o n t a c t between two elastic solids and Miller (1983c) considered simply supported and clamped-
clamped isotropic beams in contact with a cylindrical indentor.
The indentation of an isotropic elastic half-plane has been studied The solution for the beam problem was superposed with the
extensively, and detailed accounts are given by Timoshenko and elasticity solution for the local contact problem for an elastic
Goodier (1970), Gladwell (1980), and Johnson (1985). For two layer. This problem was also considered by Sankar and Sun
isotropic bodies of revolution, contact occurs in a circular zone of (1983), who took a similar approach. Keer and Schonberg
radius a in which the normal pressure varies as (1986a,b) studied cantilevered beams made of isotropic and
transversely isotropic beams, respectively, considering both flat
p = po (33) and cylindrical indentors.
a
\ J Sankar (1987) derived an approximate Green's function for
R\ and R2 being the radii of curvature of the two bodies, the normal displacements on the surface of a beam by combining the
relative curvature is defined as results for a concentrated force acting on a half-plane with those
1 1 of a beam under a concentrated force. The integral equation for
1- — . (34) contact between a cylindrical indentor and a simply supported
R Ri Ri
beam was formulated and solved numerically. Results are in
The elastic behavior of the two bodies is defined by their Young agreement with those established previously (Sankar and Sun,
moduli and Poisson's ratios, E\, Vi and Ei, Vi, respectively. The 1983; Keer and Miller, 1983b). Sankar (1989b) derived an ap-
following parameter can then be defined: proximate Green's function for surface displacements in an or-

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Appl Mech Rev vol 44, no 4, April 1991 Abraie: Laminated composite materials 163

TABLE III. Indentation of beams by rigid indentors the nondimensional contact length
c = c/l, (46)
Boundary Indentor
conditions Material shape References and the beam stiffness coefficients
D,=£,/(l-v?2), (47)
Simply Isotropic Cylindrical Keer and Miller (1983b)
supported Sankar and Sun (1983) D2 = 2Eil(kx + Xi). (48)
Sankar(1987)
X\ and Xi are the roots of the equation
Ortho- Cylindrical Sankar (1989a,b)
tropic Keer and Ballarini (1983a) S,,X4 - (2S.2 + S66)X2 + Sn = 0, (49)
Sun and Sankar (1985)
where the Sij's are the components of the compliance matrix of
Clamped- Isotropic Cylindrical Keer and Miller (1983b) the material (Sn = l/Ei, Si7=\IE2, Sn = -\\ilE\, Sm=\IG\2).
clamped Sankar and Sun (1983) Figure 9 indicates that, for small indentations, the contact pres-
Ortho- Cylindrical Keer and Ballarini (1983a) sure follows a Hertzian distribution but then differs significantly
tropic as the contact area becomes larger. To explain this trend, one can
Cantilever Isotropic Cylindrical Keer and Silva (1970) simply consider the mechanics of a beam in the contact region.
Keer and Schonberg (1986a) As the beam wraps around the cylindrical indentor, its curvature
is constant in the contact zone. This implies that the bending
Flat Keer and Schonberg (1986a) moment must be constant in that region, and, as in the four point
Ortho- Cylindrical Keer and Schonberg (1986b) bending test, loading consists of two concentrated forces applied
tropic Sankar (1989a) at the ends of the contact zone. The nondimensional contact force
Flat Keer and Schonberg (1986b) is given by
P = c2/( 1 + 20.25B?2 - 52.55?" - 229.6875B2?8) (50)
and is related to the actual contact force P by
thotropic beam following the same approach as in Sankar (1987). P = APRInDibl2. (51)
The problem of smooth contact between a rigid cylinder and a
For a cantilever beam under a cylindrical indentor (Fig 10), the
simply supported orthotropic beam was formulated in terms of an
nondimensional contact pressure distribution and contact force arc
integral equation which was then solved numerically. Sankar
given by
(1989a) provided closed form solutions for the indentation of
orthotropic beams using the formulation presented in 1989b. The MBp
(l-x2)m l-P(l-4F). ^ (52)
results presented by the various investigators are in excellent + 3P
agreement, and their discussion is facilitated by simply consider-
ing the expressions presented by Sankar (1989a). For simply
supported beams centrally loaded by a rigid cylindrical indentor (53)
1 - 3.75S? 2 - 6p + 228B2?6/(1 + 3P) - 3p 2 '
(Fig 8), the nondimensional contact stress is given by
and the position of the contact center is given by
p = (1 - J 2 ) , Q [ 1 - ^(1 - 4 ? 2 ) 1 . (41)
& = (-!+ <\VV9WBxi)mPB. (54)
The nondimensional contact pressure p is related to the actual
contact pressure p by Keer and Ballarini (1983a) and Sun and Sankar (1985) studied
the contact between a rigid cylinder and an initially stressed
p = (nbc/2P)p(x), (42) orthotropic beam on simple supports and with clamped ends. All
where
(3 = 8.75fi? (43)

is a nondimensional parameter related to the beam nondimen-


sional parameter

re Di
5 = (44)
32 D, h
V J
the nondimensional coordinate
cos 30° - — — —
x = x/c. (45)

2R

3
y^rzy
2C
7\
Ncm-Dimenslonal Distance
FIG 9. Normal pressure under a cylindrical indentor in contact with a
FIG 8. Indentation of simply supported beam by cylindrical indentor. simply supported beam.

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164 Abrate: Laminated composite materials Appl Mech Rev vol 44, no 4, April 1991

law must be determined experimentally. Yang and Sun (1982)


showed that, for loading, the force indentation curve is repre-
sented by Eq (39), where the constant n is given by
4 fl" (55)
3 (1 -Vi)/Es+ \/Eyy
E, is Poisson's ratio and the modulus of the impactor, and E}7 is
the transverse modulus of the top layer of the composite. During
the unloading phase, the contact force is given by
P = P, [(a - ao)/(otff • Oto) I (56)
where P,„ is the maximum force reached before unloading and
a.,,, is the maximum indentation; the permanent indentation ao is
given by
0 when a» < CCC!
a« = (57)
CU,[ 1 - (CCcr/Clm) when ou >0tci

where the critical indentation otcr is approximately 0.004 in. for


glass-epoxy and 0.00316 in. for graphite-epoxy. The form of Eq
(56) was originally proposed by Crook (1952). The indentation
model, consisting of Eqs (39) and (55)-(57), was also used by
Wu and Springer (1988a) and Wu and Chang (1989).
Tan and Sun (1985) further studied the unloading and reload-
FIG 10. Indenlalion of a cantilever beam by a cylinder. ing process and proposed using Eq (56) for the unloading process,
and for subsequent reloading

/> = /Jm|(a-ao)/(a,„-ao)r (58)


the articles concerning contact between a beam and a rigid inden- P(a,„ - ctp) if a m >aP,
(59)
tor follow an analytical approach, deal with relatively simple a() = 0 if a m <aP.
boundary conditions, and consider homogeneous materials. No
numerical approach could be found, and the added complexity For graphite-epoxy the permanent indentation a ;) = 1.6667 x
introduced by having a laminated medium, permanent indenta- 10 2 cm and P = 0.094 for a steel bail 1.27 cm in diameter. Fur-
tion, and damage were not considered. ther experimental results on the indentation of composite lami-
nates by a spherical indentor are given by Dan-Jumbo et al
(1989). Equations (55)-(59) were used by Chen and Sun (1983;
I n d e n t a t i o n of plates 1985a,b,c) and also by Wu and Chang (1989), Wu and Springer
Indentation of plates is modeled essentially as that of beams. The (1988b), and Bachrach and Hansen (1989).
total deformation consists of local deformations superposed on Gu and Sun (1987) presented experimental results for the
global plate motion. Essenburg (1962) considered the deformation indentation of SMC panels and showed that, during loading, the
of an isotropic plate by a rigid spherical indentor using Reissner's indentation behavior is represented by Eq (39), whereas for un-
plate theory. A partially constrained circular plate loaded by an loading Eqs (56) and (59) are used. An experimental investiga-
axisymmetric rigid indentor was studied by Keer and Miller tion showed that loading rates have negligible effects on contact
(1983c). Following the approach used by Keer and co-workers, the parameters.
solution is sought in the form of an infinite layer solution super- This contact model developed by Sun and co-workers is use-
posed on a standard plate theory pure bending solution. This ful for calculating the dynamic response of the structure. Accu-
problem was also examined by Sankar (1985a) and Cairns and rate modeling of the unloading and reloading phases is important
Lagace (1987) for transversely isotropic materials. Contact pres- in order to predict the contact force history accurately. It must be
sure distributions follow the same trends as for beams. noted that this model does not give the pressure distribution under
Dobyns (1980) indicated that, for sandwich panels with the indentor, so that, for detailed stress analyses of the contact
honeycomb cores, the Hertz relation is not valid because it pre- zone, one must use the pressure distributions determined analyti-
dicts increasing stiffness with increasing deformation, whereas cally. In addition, all analyses of the contact between a laminate
for these panels stiffness decreases with increasing deformation and an indentor are valid for force levels low enough so that
due to core crushing. Unfortunately, no data were given. damage is not introduced in the contact zone. In general, matrix
cracks and delaminations are introduced in the contact zone, but
the models available to date do not account for damage.
Contact between a s p h e r e a n d a composite l a m i n a t e
Exact elasticity solutions for the indentation of general composite
laminates are not yet available. In addition, several complicating ANALYSIS OF L O W VELOCITY IMPACT
effects may have to be considered. Permanent indentations are
generally observed even for small loads, and the unloading curve
is generally different from the loading curve (Tan and Sun, 1985). I m p a c t on a half-space
The heterogeneity of the material causes small oscillations in the The impact of a sphere on a half-space was treated by Timo-
force indentation curve with a period equal to one fiber diameter shenko and Goodier (1970). In this approach, wave effects in the
(Moon, 1975). In view of these difficulties and in order to obtain half-space and ball are neglected. Tsai (1971) showed that, for
a simple expression to be used for impact analysis, the contact practical cases, wave effects in the half-space are negligible.

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174 Abrate: Laminated composite materials Appl Mech Rev vol 44, no 4, April 1991

TABLE VI. Data on delamination area increases with kinetic


energy of the impactor

Bishop (1985) Hong and Liu (1989)


Cantwell(1988a,b) Lai (1982)
Cantwelletal(1986) Leach et al (1987)
Cantwcll and Morton (1984b; Liu (1988)
1989) Malvern etal (1987; 1989)
Caprinoctal (1984) O'Kane and Bcnham (1986)
Curtis and Bishop (1984) Ramkumar and Thakar (1987)
Demuts and Sharpe (1987) Rhodes etal (1981)
Dobyns(l980) Sierakowski et al (1976)
Dorey(1987) Takedaetal(1981a)
Doreyctal(l978; 1985) Takamatsuetal (1986)
Gandhc and Griffin (1989) Vcrpoest etal (1987)
Goltesman et al (1987) Williams and Rhodes (1982)
Grady and Mcvn (1989) Wu and Springer (1988a)
Griffin (1987)
Projected Area (mm )
FIG 18. Total vs projected delaminatcd area for graphitc-epoxy lam-
inates (Malvern el al. 1989).

between the region where no detectable damage occurs and that


in which some damage is introduced (Avva et al, 1986). Experi-
mental difficulties associated with precise control of initial im-
pact velocity and the high cost of performing these tests make the
method unpractical (Hong and Liu, 1989).
Sjoblom (1987) showed that for low velocity impacts for
which the kinetic energy of the impactor was just above the
threshold value, a sudden drop in the measured contact force was
observed. This threshold force can be measured during a single
impact experiment and is easier to obtain than the threshold
kinetic energy to initiate delamination which requires performing
a number of impact tests and determining the size of the damaged
zone in each case, In addition, the damage initiation threshold
force was shown to follow the equation
Pinit = ch • (112)
where h is the laminate thickness and c is a constant determined
Projected Area (mm )
from experimental results. The initiation force threshold is deter-
FIG 19. Total vs projected delaminatcd area for Kcvlar-epoxy lami- mined from a single experiment and is relatively insensitive to
nates (Malvern el al, 1989). variations in impactor velocity. It was then proposed as a better
indicator of the onset of damage.

The linear variation of the delamination area shown in Figs 16


and 17 was reported by Sierakowski et al (1976) and confirmed EFFECT OF MATERIAL PROPERTIES
by many investigators (Table VI). This relationship can be writ-
ten as Impact damage is a combination of delamination, matrix crack-
ing, and fiber breakage. The first two types of failure are sensitive
K= fa +ki/\, (HI)
to matrix properties, whereas fiber breakage is more sensitive to
where fa is the threshold kinetic energy required to produce detect- the properties of the fibers. Improvements in the properties of the
able damage, A is the total delaminated area, and fa is the apparent constituents leads, in general, to improved impact damage re-
surface fracture energy. The fitted line for the data shown in Fig 16 sistance of the laminate, as several studies have shown. How-
gives a coefficient fa = 3440 lint for three-layer plates. A review ever, defining a better material system for a particular applica-
of similar data for glass-epoxy plates (Malvern et al, 1987) indi- tion is difficult because of an inadequate understanding of the
cated that very different values can be obtained depending on micromechanics of damage formation. The lack of an analytical
specimen fabrication techniques and other factors. However, dy- model to relate the properties of the fibers, the matrix, and the
namic fracture energies are always at least one order of magnitude fiber-matrix interface to the properties of the composite forces
larger than those measured using static test methods. development of new material systems to rely on tests to deter-
Sankar and Sun (1986) showed that preloads lower the thresh- mine the governing parameters. Experimental results reported by
old impact velocity for damage initiation. Determination of the Elber (1985) indicate that matrix properties govern the damage
threshold impact velocity or threshold kinetic energy of the im- threshold and determine the extent of impact damage. Fiber prop-
pactor required to initiate damage is quite difficult. Due to scatter erties, on the other hand, control the penetration resistance.
in the data, the value of fa determined by fitting the experimental
values of the damaged area versus the kinetic energy of the
impactor is quite inaccurate unless a very large number of tests Effect of m a t r i x p r o p e r t i e s
are performed. Quite a number of tests need to be performed by It is generally recognized that an increase in strain to failure of the
slowly increasing the impact velocity and determining the limit matrix will result in improved residual strength of the composite

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166 Abrate: Laminated composite materials Appl Meet) Rev vol 44, no 4, April 1991

Then the displacement becomes where the Hi/s and a)</s represent the mode shapes and natural
frequencies of the plate. Equation (88) represents the response of
"'(0 = X </.-"<'-/A/>S(/-i A/). (78) the structure to the contact force and is similar to Eq (62) for
=0.1,2,... beams. Substitution into Eq (65) gives an integral equation which
must be solved numerically.
S(t) = J R(x)g(t - T) dx. (79) Sun and Chattopadhyay (1975) extended this approach to
analyze laminated composite plates under initial stress. Terms
S(t) is simply the response of the structure to loading R(t) and can accounting for in-plane initial tension in the x and y directions
be obtained using the finite element model. The force, velocity, were included in a laminated plate theory that accounts for trans-
and displacement at time t = /' At are given by verse shear deformation (Whitney and Pagano, 1970). The anal-
ysis parallels that of Timoshenko (1913) and Karas (1939) and
Pi = q» + q\ + qi + • • • + </; i = Pi i + C/M , (80)
is applied to rectangular plates with simply supported boundary
conditions. Qian and Swanson (1989) used the same approach
v, = v, i - P / . i -</M , (81) to study the impact response of rectangular laminated plates
m • 2m clamped on all four edges. In this case, natural frequencies and
. n (At)2 (At)2 mode shapes could be obtained exactly and were determined
(82) using a Rayleigh-Ritz procedure. Excellent agreement was
Xi = x, i + i', i At - Pi i 2m „ ' - ''q, ' i bm
\ -'
shown with experimental results. In their analysis of laminated
Wi = q»Si + qSi i + qiSi 2 + • • • + qi \S\. (83) plate impact, Dobyns (1980) and Dobyns and Porter (1981) fol-
lowed the approach given in Sun and Chattopadhyay (1975) and
The approach is given by pointed out that assuming a concentrated contact force led to
a, =x, ->v,(c). (84) the prediction of an infinite transverse shear force at the contact
point. The contact force was then distributed over a finite rectan-
Substituting into the contact law gular area, the size of this area was varied, and uniform or cosine
P = §(a) or a = $(/>), (85) shaped pressure distribution was used. The size of the loading
we get patch was arbitrarily taken as the ball diameter.
The plate theory of Whitney and Pagano (1970) is a first-order
§(Pi i+q, 1) = d - </; (86) shear deformation theory. It accounts for shear deformation, as-
bm
suming that normals to the midsurface remain straight and rotate
C,=x, i + v, , Al - Fi i(Atfl2m independently of the transverse displacement. High order shear
deformation theories allow for warping of the normals to the
- (q„S, + qnS, ! + •••+(-/, 2S2). (87)
midsurface. One such theory, which also includes the effect of
Equation (86) is a nonlinear algebraic equation for the unknown transverse normal stress, was used by Thangjitham et al (1987) to
q, and is solved using an iterative procedure. The advantage of investigate the plate impact problem treated previously by Sun
this procedure is that, in computing S(t), the finite element equa- and Chattopadhyay (1975). The effect of transverse normal stress
tions are solved only once for each time step, whereas with the on contact force and duration and plate displacement were negli-
previous procedure, those equations will have to be solved for gible. For moderately thick plates, the contribution of transverse
each iteration during every time step. The procedure was applied normal strain to local stress can be significant.
to two classical examples (Timoshenko, 1913) of central impact Chattopadhyay (1987) studied the effect of permanent inden-
of a beam by a sphere. Significant savings in computer time were tation on the impact response of elastic plates. Classical plate
reported. theory was used along with the large plate approximation pre-
Keer and Lee (1985) considered the impact of an elastically sented by Zener (1941). The energy absorbed in the plate was
supported beam for cases when the pressure distribution in the larger when inelastic impacts were considered.
contact area does not follow a Hertzian distribution as the beam Chou et al (1975) first performed direct measurements of
wraps around the indentor. transient strain histories of laminated plates subjected to realistic
Sankar and Sun (1985c) presented a finite element analysis of impact loading. The test was designed to generate one-dimen-
the impact of laminated beams subjected to initial stresses. Four- sional bending-shear deformation in a target plate impacted by a
noded rectangular elements with four degrees of freedom per striker plate in which one-dimensional in-plane motion takes
node were used along with the numerical algorithm previously place. The laminated plate theory developed by Whitney and
developed by Sankar and Sun (1985b). The static indentation Pagano (1970) was used, and the equations of motion reduce to
laws used did not account for initial stresses and assumed purely
elastic contact. Auu,xx = Pu,„ (89)
for the striker plate and
I m p a c t on plates KA^.x,x + w,xt) = Pw.tt, (90)
The basic approach presented by Timoshenko (1913) for the D\\tyx.xx + D\6^y,xx ~~ KAtttyx + W,x) = /\|fe,«, (91)
analysis of transverse impact of a beam by a sphere was extended
Dl6\|/.x,« + DdeVfy.XX - kAuVfy = I\fy,lt, (92)
by Karas (1939) to the analysis of the central impact of a rectan-
gular simply supported plate. The plate displacement for concen- for the target plate. Using the following boundary conditions at
trated force F(j) acting at an arbitrary location (,vo,>'o) is given by the interface between the two plates,
u(0,t) = w(0,t), Mx(0,t) = o(0,f)ft2/2,
(93)
•* ' TT li J
™JE^ .^ssW o(0,0 = Qx(0,t)/b, MXy(0,t) = 0,
my J J Hlj dx dy
the problem was then solved numerically using the method of
characteristics. Excellent agreement was found with experimental
x Fm sin <Hij(t-x)dx, (88) results for strains at several locations on the surface of the plate.

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Appl Mech Rev vol 44, no 4, April 1991 Abrate: Laminated composite materials 167

Tan and Sun (1985) used a finite element approach for study- compared well with theoretical predictions, even though the
ing the impact of a laminated plate by a rod. The plate was model considered a complete spherical shell with no reflections
modeled using shear flexible plate elements, while the rod was from boundaries. This is because the response was studied for
represented using higher order rod elements. Very good agree- times of the order of the contact time for which reflections from
ment with experimental results was reported for both contact the boundaries were insignificant.
force and strains at several locations on the surface of the plate. Bachrach and Hansen (1989) used three-dimensional finite
Chen and Sun (1983; 1985a,b,c) developed a finite element elements to analyze the dynamics of laminated cylindrical shells
procedure to analyze initially stressed laminates subjected to subjected to impact. Equations (39) and (55)-(59) were used to
impact by a mass. The plate was modeled by nine-node iso- model the contact stiffness.
parametric quadrilateral elements accounting for transverse shear
deformation. Chen and Sun (1985a,b) used a nine-node finite
element model based on the Mindlin plate theory and the von SCALING
Karman large deflection assumptions in conjunction with the
contact model of Yang and Sun (1982) to study the impact re- In order to reduce the expense associated with impact testing of
sponse of buckled laminates. prototype structures, it is often advantageous to perform tests on
Wu and Chang (1989) used an eight-node brick element with scale models. Scaling rules are useful in relating laboratory scale
incompatible modes to study the transient dynamics of composite experiments to impact on larger scale structures. Morton (1988)
laminated plates subjected to impact. A three-dimensional analy- first discussed the application of scaling laws to low velocity
sis was performed in order to determine out-of-plane stresses impact of fiber composite laminates using an approach based on
through the laminate thickness in order to predict damage. The dimensional analysis. For transversely impacted isotropic beams,
contact force during impact was determined using the indentation the parameter of interest is taken as the transverse deflection
laws presented by Tan and Sun (1985). In the solution procedure, H'(r), and the parameters are grouped into three categories: geo-
the finite element model was used once per time increment, and metrical parameters /, b, h\ material properties E, v; and input
the solution obtained was then used in the iterations required to parameters Ei, v,, pi, and V,. Buckingham's pi theorem was used
determine contact force. Globally, this is equivalent to the proce- to obtain a complete group of nondimensional terms.
dure used in Sankar and Sun (1985b) described earlier. However,
in Sankar and Sun (1985b) the finite element analysis was per- JTi = wlh, 7t6 = V,
formed separately from the analysis of the contact problem so ill = II h, Tt7 = Vi,
that an existing finite element code could be used without modi- n 3 = blh, Tt8 = piVp, (99)
fication, whereas in Wu and Chang (1989) both aspects of the Jt4 = R/h, 7t9 = p<V2/£,
problem were coupled. 7t5 = Ei/E, Km = tVilh.
Koller (1986a) studied the impact of spheres on sandwich With these nondimensional parameters, there must be a function
plates using a simplified mode! for the plate and the Hertzian / s u c h that
contact law. Results agreed qualitatively with experiments, but
neglecting the effects of core flexibility was thought to explain /(7li,7t2, . . • , 7tio) = 0. (100)
the significant discrepancies. Oplinger and Slepetz (1975) ana- Considering a model in which linear dimensions have been
lyzed the impact of sandwich panels by modeling the facings as scaled by a factor s with respect to the actual structure, the terms
orthotropic plates on elastic foundations. 7ti-7t4 are the same. If the same materials are used, the terms
Jt5-Jt8 are also scaled. Examining the term 719, we see that the
I m p a c t on shells velocity of the impactor must remain the same, and, considering
the Ttio term, we find that
The impact of a mass on a thin spherical shell was studied by
Koller and Busenhart (1986b). The isotropic shell was modeled
(101)
using the Reissner theory, neglecting in-plane inertia terms. For a ~h sh
concentrated normal impulse load, P
where the subscript m denotes the value for the scale model and
/(0 = ^§(0, (94) p that for the prototype. This implies that time must be scaled in
acting on such a shell, Medick (1962) showed that displacements the model. In other words, events occur much faster in a subscale
at the point of application of the load are given by model. In this example, it appears possible to make an exact scale
model assuming that the 13 parameters used represent a complete
ws(t) = aPJ»{tl%s)H{t), (95) set. If, for example, the material is now rate-sensitive and de-
scribed by
3(lzvi)'
(96) o = E(e + te), (102)
4hz ~E.sp.i
where x reflects the material rate sensitivity, a new nondimen-
T.v = rs(Eslpsy (97) sional parameter,
./(i is the zero order Bessel function. The displacement for an Tin = tlX, (103)
unknown contact force history /**(/) is determined using
must be introduced. If the model is made of the same material as
the prototype, we have a new condition for similarity,
w(0 = c t j F(f-(')./<> ell'. (98)
( 0 « = (0P. (104)
Following the same approach as for beams and plates, an integral which is in conflict with Eq (101). It is not possible to produce an
equation governing the impact problem is obtained assuming exact scale model for rate sensitive material. Scaling laws were
Hertzian contact [Eq (39) 1. Tests on panels with simply supported then shown to apply for the elastic undamaged behavior of car-
and clamped boundary conditions were performed, and results bon-epoxy laminated beams.

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168 Abrate: Laminated composite materials Appl Mech Rev vol 44, no 4, April 1991

Qian and Swanson (1989) presented a different approach for light, damage can be observed in such laminates using strong
determining scaling rules for the impact of specially orthotropic backlighting. The size and shape of delaminations and the pres-
laminated plates. The plate equations of motion describe the ence of matrix cracks can be detected by direct visual observa-
behavior both of the prototype and the scale model. T h e first tion. Other material systems do not transmit light, and other
equation reads techniques must be used. Whole-field methods, such as radiogra-
phy or ultrasonic imaging, can be used to visualize internal dam-
Dutj/.v.xv + Dbb^x.yy + (Dn + Dtf,)\\fy,xy
age over large areas. In order to observe delaminations on X-ray
- KA^x + H-,.0 = (p/i 3 /12) \|/,,„, (105) photographs, a penetrant opaque to X-rays must be injected in the
damaged zone. Malvern et al (1987) injected iothalamate sodium
and all variables are scaled so that
with a syringe through a 1.4 mm diameter hole drilled at the
Tp = XlT m , (106) center of the impacted area. After the penetrant dried, X-ray
photographs showed overlapping delaminations. Conventional
where Tp and Tn are typical variables associated with the proto-
ultrasonic C-scan methods determine only the projected delami-
type and scale model and X, is the scale factor. For example, Xx is
nation area.
the geometric scale factor in the A direction, Xi, is the scale factor
These approaches allow determination of the projected dam-
in the thickness direction, X, is the scale factor in time, and Xp
aged area, but delamination patterns at each interface are different
scale as thickness cubed, and the density remains the same. After
in size, shape, and orientation. Matrix cracks also develop differ-
scaling, F.q (105) becomes
ently in each layer, and an accurate description of delaminations
XhXy and matrix cracking through the thickness is needed for develop-
DII\|/A, 066\|/.v ing a better understanding of damage development. Several inves-
XI- xl tigators (Buynak et al, 1988; Frock et al, 1988; Ramkumar and
A/,Ayy
Chen, 1983a; Boll et al, 1986) used improved ultrasonic examina-
D(*)V|/v,.vv - (AAA,\|/.V)A 5 5 tion procedures capable of resolving the distribution and size of
X.X-
delaminations through the thickness of the specimen. Very de-
XiiXw ApA/,Ay,\ p/r1 tailed delamination maps showing ply-by-ply patterns were ob-
Atf\\\x : V)/.v,H. ( 1 0 7 ) tained with these techniques. Boll et al (1986) employed a
Xx 12
new acoustic backscattering technique to resolve interply delami-
The condition for similitude of Eqs (105) and (107) is that the nations in impact damaged regions and verified the results by
terms in parentheses are all equal, which gives the following performing a detailed microscopic examination. This technique,
scaling rules:
developed by Bar-Cohen and Crane (1982), is also capable of
determining matrix cracks in each ply and of detecting other types
At , Xyx 1 Xx , AH' , j XpXfj of defects such as wavy or misaligned fibers.
1, 1, = 1, and = I. (108)
X, Awy Xi, XhXyx W
Another approach to obtaining detailed maps of impact dam-
Following this procedure, the other two equations of motion yield age consists of sectioning several thin strips of material at differ-
the following additional rules: ent locations and different orientations throughout the contact
zone. After careful preparation, microscopic observations of the
A.,- A„. , \>X.K . surface of these cross sections allows us to determine the distri-
= i, and ' = 1. (109)
Xi, A/iA«n A.M- bution of delaminations and matrix cracking through the thick-
When strain similitude is required, that is, XVx = Xvy=\, Eqs
ness of the specimen. Details on specimen preparation prior to
(108) and (109) result in
microscopic examinations are given by Liu et al (1987a). If radio-
graphic or ultrasonic equipment is not available, microscopic
Xx _ Xy _ An- _ Xl observations of a sufficient number of cross sections throughout
= 1, and XP=\. (110)
Xi, ' Xi, ' Xi, ' Xi, the damage zone permit an accurate mapping of the damage.
The Shadow-Moire technique used by several investigators
These relations show that geometric scaling must be observed
(Table IV) to observe the size of delaminations during post-im-
and that time must also be scaled. These scaling rules are similar
pact compression tests will be discussed later.
to those obtained by Morton (1988). Experiments conducted on
several laminated plates with geometric scaling factors Xx- 1, 2, Another whole-field nondestructive inspection technique
3, 4, 5 showed that, during impact, strains at similar locations called infrared thermography has been developed recently. The
follow the same history, provided that time is also scaled by the basic principle behind this method consists of initiating a heat
same factor. flow field directed normal to the plane of the laminate. This can
be achieved by placing the specimen on a plastic-covered heated
water tank which has a large thermal mass. A thermal control unit
was used to blow either cold air or hot air on the top surface of the
EXPERIMENTAL STUDIES OF IMPACT specimen. A heat flow through the thickness in either direction
DAMAGE can then be created. The presence of delaminations in the lami-
nate changes the thermal conductivity in that area and causes a
temperature gradient to appear. The entire temperature field can
E x p e r i m e n t a l techniques for impact d a m a g e be observed, recorded, and analyzed using commercially avail-
assessment able thermovision systems designed around an infrared camera.
Various techniques have been developed to determine the extent Results of an initial study by Hillman and Hillman (1985) indi-
of damage present in a laminate after impact (Table IV). Internal cate that this approach can be used to detect delaminations. How-
damage usually consists of fiber breakage, delaminations, and ever, the thermograms themselves, which are images of the spec-
matrix cracking. In most cases, and particularly with low velocity imen surface in which darker areas correspond to lower
impacts, a large part of the induced damage is internal and cannot temperatures, do not yield accurate information as to the size and
be detected simply by examining the surface of the laminate. shape of delaminations. Comparisons with ultrasonic C-scan re-
Since glass-epoxy or Kevlar-epoxy composites transmit sults showed significant differences. Because of heat conduction,

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Appl Mech Rev vol 44, no 4, April 1991 Abrate: Laminated composite materials 179

Prediction of internal ply d a m a g e


In addition to interply delamination, impact causes fiber failures
and matrix cracks. Prediction of this type of failure and the size
of the damaged zone requires accurate stress calculations in a
small area, including the contact zone.
>
Greszczuk and Chao (1977) used an axisymmetric finite ele-
I
ment model of a plate being impacted to determine the internal
stresses. Failure was determined using a quadratic-type criterion. '
Plate thickness was shown to influence the type of failure. Thin
,
plates failed in bending, whereas thick plates failed due to contact
stresses. Shivakumar et al (1985b) presented a method to predict II
damage fiber breakage and matrix splits due to transverse tensile
stress or in-plane shear stress. The approach was based on a quasi-
static analysis of low velocity impact loadings including the ef- ,,
fects of geometrical nonlinearities. The Tsai-Wu quadratic failure II
criterion was used to calculate damage regions, and the maximum
stress criteria was used to identify the failure mode. Reasonable
agreement with test results was reported. Bachrach and Hansen
(1989) and Yener and Wolcott (1989) used the same interior to
predict ply failure in Impacted laminated cylindrical shells. FIG 25. Different failure zones during the perforation of a laminated
Gu and Sun (1987) proposed a simple criterion to predict plate: region I, shear of the fibers; region II, tensile Fiber failure;
failure of an impacted SMC panel based on strain energy consid- region III, tensile fiber failure and delamination.
erations. Impact induced stresses were determined using nine-
node isoparametric plate elements (Tan and Sun, 1985). A
transverse fracture energy. Theoretical predictions and experi-
weighted strain energy density is defined as
mental results on CFRP laminated beams and plates were in good
U = Uv+$Us, (129) agreement, except for thick targets in which shear failure oc-
curred on top and was then followed by tensile failure at the bot-
where Uv is the dilatational strain energy density and Us, the tom. For thick laminates, three zones could be observed through
distortional strain energy; these are given by the thickness (Fig 25). First, the Fibers were sheared out, then they
(y,.= _Ul-2v)[oit (130) failed in tension, and then delamination became the dominant
• OxxOvv + Ovv
failure mode.
(A = 5(1 + v ) T Oxv - OxvOv 2(1 + V)fc - Ovz + Oxz

and p is a weighting coefficient. An equivalent stress o was RESIDUAL PROPERTIES


defined as
After impact damage, the laminate properties will be altered, and
0 2 = 2EU. (131)
the residual properties of impact damaged specimens subjected to
Failure occurred when the equivalent stress 0 reached a critical tension, compression, bending, and shear loading must be deter-
value rjcr. For the material used in that study, Ccr and P were mined. The fatigue behavior of composite laminates will also be
determined by matching the analytical solutions with experimen- affected by impact damage. A recent review of test results is
tal data for an impact speed of 1250 in./s. The value available (Jones et al, 1987), so this topic will not be covered
Ocr = 17,000 psi was almost the same as the flexural strength of here. Experimental results on residual strength after impact were
the material, and P = 0.3. With these two constants, very good presented by many authors (Table VII).
predictions of the damaged area were obtained for all other im-
pact velocities.
Residual tensile strength
The residual tensile strength of a laminate after impact decreases
Resistance to ballistic perforation
as the initial kinetic energy of the impactor increases and follows
Several investigators, including Gupta and Davids (1966) and a curve of the type shown in Fig 26. In region I, no damage occurs
Vasudev and Meehlman (1987), reported on experiments de- as long as the impact velocity remains below a certain threshold
signed to assess the penetration resistance of fiberglass-rein- value. In region II, damage occurs, and, as the velocity increases,
forced plastics subjected to small caliber projectiles. Cantwell strength is rapidly reduced until a maximum damage size is
and Morton (1985a) proposed a simple model for predicting the reached. For higher velocities, complete perforation occurs leav-
ballistic perforation energy of a composite target. The total en- ing a hole with a diameter independent of impact velocity so that
ergy required for complete perforation is taken as the sum of the the residual strength is nearly constant. The range of speeds
energy absorbed for target flexure E/, contact deformation £<., associated with each region depends on a number of parameters,
delamination Ea, and shear out Es. High velocity impact excited including plate thickness, size and shape of impactor, and the
only local modes of target response, and it was assumed that the material properties.
mass of the zone affected was equal to that of the projectile. The To estimate the residual strength of a laminate after impact, it
energy required to create delamination was estimated by multi- is generally assumed that impact induced defects introduce the
plying the surface of the delaminated area, determined from C- same strength reduction as a hole or a crack of the same size
scans, by 700 J/m*, the fracture energy for delamination. Micro- (Chamis and Ginty, 1989). Uniaxial failure of composite lami-
graphs showed that (lie projectile has removed a frustrum shaped nates in the presence of stress concentrations due to circular holes
shear plug. The energy dissipated in target shear out was esti- and cracks was studied by Nuismer and Whitney (1975). For an
mated by multiplying the area of the sheared surface by the infinite orthotropic plate with a hole of radius R, if a uniform

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170 Abrate: Laminated composite materials Appi Mech Rev vol 44, no 4, April 1991

the diffusion of heat, temperature maps obtained experimentally skins and frames or skins and stringers to monitor delamination
cannot be used directly to determine the actual damage area. The of the joint. All optical fibers traversing a delaminated area were
two-dimensional heat equation must be used to determine a map destroyed, providing the means for remote damage detection.
of the heat generation rate per unit area, which will then be used This technique was also used to study high velocity impact dam-
to locate the damage area. age and, in particular, its distribution through the thickness. Un-
Several authors used the deply technique (Table IV) to inves- fortunately, results were not reported. The possibility of real time
tigate through-the thickness damage distribution. With the proce- monitoring of structural integrity with fiber optics on a commer-
dure described by Levin (1986), a gold chloride solution was cial aircraft (Airbus) is described and makes this technique very
used with an isopropyl alcohol carrier to infiltrate the damaged attractive.
area. If surface damage was not sufficient to allow penetration of
the solution, 1 mm holes were drilled through the laminate. After
O b s e r v a t i o n of Impact d a m a g e d e v e l o p m e n t
drying the laminate, a precipitation covered the fracture surfaces.
The matrix was partially pyrolyzed in an oven at about 420°C, In order to understand impact damage development, it is impor-
and the laminate could then be separated into individual laminae. tant to determine how damage initiates and grows during impact.
Delaminations and matrix cracks could be observed under an Moore and Prediger (1988) used a 35 mm camera to photograph
optical microscope using a high intensity light source. A fluores- the tension side of the plate during impact to monitor crack
cent light directed along the surface of the lamina allowed the propagation. The signal from a piezoelectric force transducer
detection of fiber fracture. Li and Harding (1987) depiied the which is part of the impactor was used to trigger a flash with a
specimen after impact and measured the residual strength of each preset time delay. One exposure was taken in each impact exper-
lamina. The distribution of residual strength through the thick- iment, but, by selecting different delay times and repeating the
ness is a measure of internal ply damage. experiment several times, the evolution of damage on the non-
Rhodes et al (1981) noticed spallations of a thin coat of brittle impacted surface could be charted from the early to the later
lacquer applied to the back surface of the impacted specimen. stages of damage development.
The spallation pattern was shown to correspond to the internal Takeda et al (1982b) measured the velocity of delamination
damage area determined from ultrasonic C-scans. Very good crack propagation using high speed photography. The semi-trans-
correlation between the damage area determined by the brittle parency of glass-epoxy plates, which is used to observe internal
lacquer, and C-scan inspection techniques was observed. damage after impact by visual observation using strong back-
The "tapping" technique is often used empirically to detect the lighting, allowed the observation of delamination growth during
presence of internal defects by lightly tapping the specimen and impact by filming the entire event with a high speed 16 mm
listening to the change in radiated sound as the impact location is camera. Speeds of up to 40,000 frames/s were used for impacts of
changed from an undamaged zone to a region containing a delam- ((0)5, (90)5, (0)s] laminates by 1 in. diameter cylinders with either
ination. Kenner et al (1985) used this technique to detect free blunt or hemispherical noses. Before contact, shadows of the
edge delaminations. The impact was generated by dropping a impactor approaching the plate were observed and served to
small steel sphere from a controlled height onto a specially de- determine the impactor velocity. Right after contact, the two
signed miniature transducer placed on the surface of the plate. interface delaminations propagated almost simultaneously, but
The output of that transducer gives the contact force during the the first interface crack stopped before the second. Delamination
contact time and plate acceleration after contact ceases. During in the 90° direction at the first interface propagate initially at
the duration of contact, only very small differences could be about 300-400 m/s, which decrease to about 200-300 m/s,
observed between the transducer output as the impact location and decelerated to stop after about 100 ps. The second interface
was changed from the undamaged zone to the damaged area. A initially propagated at about 400-500 m/s which decreased to
second time interval (ringing), starting from the time when con- about 270-400 m/s to stop after about 300 ps. Delaminations
tact ends to the time when the flexural wave reflected from the were associated with an impact-generated flexural wave. Trans-
boundaries arrived, was analyzed. Very different frequency spec- verse cracking occurred while delamination occurred, and there
tra during that "ringing" interval were obtained depending on were indications that transverse cracks were caused by a tensile
whether the impact occurred on or off the debonded area. This wave due to large deflections that traveled at almost the same
technique has the potential for being used to locate internal dam- speed as the flexural wave. Delamination velocities appeared to
age. be independent of parameters such as impactor shape, mass, or
With the methods just discussed, the operation of the structure velocity. Malvern et al (1987) also used high speed photography
must be interrupted, accessibility for personnel and equipment to show that delamination in the two interfaces started at about
must be provided, and sufficient time must be allowed for de- the same time, but the one in the second interface continued
tailed inspection. In many applications, these conditions cannot longer and propagated faster.
be fulfilled easily, and there is an obvious demand for automatic, Several investigators used the Shadow-Moire interferometry
real time, and remote working detection systems. One elegant technique to study delamination buckling during post-impact
approach using embedded optical fibers was presented by Hofer compression tests (Table IV). With the Shadow-Moire optical
(1987). Thin optical fibers, 30-200 pm in diameter, were bonded setup (Fig 1 1), a stationary master grid placed close to the speci-
to the surface or embedded between plies and co-cured with the men remained undeformed, while the grid formed by the shadow
laminate. Illuminating one end of the fiber, the structure was of the master grid deformed with the specimen. The optical inter-
considered sound along that line if light was transmitted to the ference of the deformed and undeformed grids produced dark and
other end. If the structure contained a crack, light transmission bright fringes from which the normal displacements of the panel
was interrupted. The basic idea was to integrate a widely spread surface could be determined.
system of fibers into all vulnerable and inaccessible areas of the Chai et al (1983) used high-speed photography coupled with
structure and connect them to a computer that can automatically the Shadow-Moire technique to record the phenomenon of fail-
and continuously monitor damage. Several applications were ure propagation in composite panels subjected simultaneously to
mentioned by Hofer (1987). Of particular interest for the present compressive in-plane loading and low velocity transverse impact
studies are tests conducted on fuselage panels for an Airbus (0-75 m/s). For a panel subjected to a compressive load equal to
CFRP airframe in which optical fibers were integrated between 20% of its buckling load, a series of real time front and back

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Appl Mech Rev vol 44, no 4, April 1991 Abrate: Laminated composite materials 171

simply supported plate. Static tests for both cases of support


conditions produced AE events similar to those obtained during
impact tests, suggesting that the predominant failure modes may
be the same for both static and impact tests.

DAMAGE

Many failure modes, such as delamination, fiber fracture, and


matrix cracking, can occur during the impact of a composite
laminate by a foreign object. A number of studies were conducted
to determine the exact nature of the damage, the sequence of
damage accumulation, and the influence of various parameters
1 such as impactor shape and velocity. Damage initiation and per-
FIG 1 1. Shadow-Moire optical setup: (1) light source, (2) lens, (3) foration threshold values are important from the point of view of
grid, (4) camera, (5) specimen. designing against tool drop or small stone impact damage or to
maximize resistance to ballistic impact. The evolution of the size
of the damaged area with the kinetic energy of the impactor is
also of interest.
surface Moire pictures was taken every 50 pis. Although the
global response of the panel was small, bulging of the surface
corresponding to buckling of delaminated areas was observed. D a m a g e development
Initially, the delaminated region grew with its boundaries propa- Many studies were directed toward understanding damage pat-
gating at 300 m/s. This result is in agreement with thai of Takeda terns and determining the damage development sequence. Dam-
et al (1982b). After an initial growth stage, a rapid growth phase age accumulation depends on projectile velocity but also on a
was observed. The propagation speed of the delamination was number of other parameters, so that it is not possible to set strict
influenced by the initial compressive strains, and speeds up to limits between the different regimes. However, experiments
850 in/s were recorded. The difference in behavior after the initial show that, for a given set of experimental conditions where the
growth stage between the results of Takeda et al (1982b) and Chai impact speed is the only variable, there is a certain threshold
et al (1983) can be attributed to the different loading conditions. velocity below which no detectable damage occurs. Above the
In the first case, damage was created by the impact generated threshold velocity, no surface damage is observed except for a
stress wave which propagated away from the impact zone, small indentation at the contact point, but significant internal
whereas, in the experiments conducted by Chai et al (1983), damage consisting of delaminations and matrix cracks are intro-
compressive loading on the delaminated area became more se- duced. As the impact velocity increases further, surface damage
vere for larger delaminations. Therefore, in one instance, the due mainly to fiber breakage is introduced. For very high speeds,
propagation speed was reduced and eventually became zero and. the target does not have time to deform, and perforation occurs,
In the other, it increased significantly. leaving a clean hole in the sample.
High speed photography was used by Olster and Roy (1974) Early investigations concentrated on understanding delamina-
to study ballistic damage in graphite-epoxy and boron-epoxy tion patterns and how they develop. Ross and Sierakowski (1973)
laminates and by Sun and Grady (1988a) to record impact re- studied the damage inflicted to composite plates by blunt and
sponse and delamination crack propagation. conical ended long cylindrical impactors propelled by an air gun
Observation of backsurface damage, as in Moore and Prediger assembly. Significant areas of delamination of the glass-epoxy
(1988), does not provide information on damage initiation and specimens were observed visually using a strong light source.
growth. In many cases, damage does not Initiate at the back Cristescu et al (1975) describe failure mechanisms in composite
surface. Direct observations were made possible by the semi- plates impacted by blunt ended penetrators. Using five-layer
transparency of glass-epoxy in the experiments of Takeda et al glass-epoxy laminates, pictures were taken to show four clearly
(1982b) and by local buckling of the delaminated zone in the distinct delamination areas. Delamination always occurred be-
presence of initial compressive stresses in the work by Chai et al tween two layers of different fiber orientation, never between two
(1983). For cases in which these two techniques cannot be used, layers with the same orientation. Except for very low velocities,
indirect methods, such as acoustic emission, may provide impor- the first phase of damage was the shearing out of a generator strip
tant information. in the first layer. This strip is parallel to the fiber direction, and its
Gardiner and Pearson (1985) used the acoustic emission tech- width is equal to the diameter of the impactor. Until the fibers
nique to monitor damage development during impact of lami- were cut through, this strip was being pushed down by the impac-
nated composites using a drop-weight with either a simply sup- tor and loaded the second layer, initiati g interlaminar separation
ported or instrumented system. Specimens of 6 x 6 in. with between layers 1 and 2. This caused delamination. The fibers in
clamped supports were impacted by a •% in. tipped impactor. layer 1 can be broken either by shearing action due to high
Significantly different response was observed with the two types velocity impact or by the high tensile stresses that develop as this
of boundary conditions for simply supported plates; above a layer is being pushed through. After the fibers in the first layer
certain threshold load level, the impact force was significantly were broken, the process was repeated with a new generator strip
reduced (approximately 20%) as internal delaminations were cre- being formed in layer 2 and so on. Sierakowski et al (1976)
ated. Acoustic emission data showed that a high-amplitude event discussed failure modes for a fiberglass-epoxy composite plate
occurred at this instant. For clamped plates, a much smaller load impacted by a blunt ended cylinder at a speed below that required
drop was observed at a much higher load and corresponded to for perforation. A sequential delamination mode was observed,
fiber breakage in several plies. The acoustic emission (AE) event and the effect of increasing the number of plies was discussed.
associated with this type of failure was shown to last much longer Clark (1989) presented a model explaining how delaminations
and contain higher frequency components than in the case of the occur at the interfaces between two plies during impact and how

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172 Abrate: Laminated composite materials Appl Mech Rev vol 44, no 4, April 1991

the distribution of deiaminations through the thickness can be when there was no delamination nearby, while others grew ob-
predicted. With two layers, we can consider the forces acting on liquely and were followed by deiaminations.
two small strips crossing each other. Due to curvatures in each The relationship between delamination and matrix cracking
layer, the tension in the fiber directions will either result in peel for (0/90/0) laminates subjected to transverse impact was studied
forces promoting delamination, or produce a net force trying to by Joshi and Sun (1985). Micrographs of several cross sections
keep the plies together and do not favor delamination. This indi- through the damaged zone showed deiaminations and both nor-
cates that delamination is more likely to occur in the direction of mal and inclined matrix cracks. Later, Sun and Rechack (1988b)
the lower ply. This conclusion has been verified in many experi- showed that the introduction of an adhesive layer at the ply
mental studies and can be used to predict the damage patterns in interfaces helps prevent delamination. Liu and Malvem (1987b)
complex laminates by successive examination of each interface. observed several interesting features for matrix crack patterns
Several investigators presented detailed maps of impact in- with this type of laminate. Delamination patterns for this laminate
duced deiaminations for each interface of the laminate (Table are shown in Fig 13. Matrix cracks were oriented in the fiber
VI). These experimental observations indicate that delamination direction, and, on the impacted surface, they covered an area
occurs at interfaces between layers with different fiber orien- which can be divided into three zones (Fig 14). The central zone
tations. The delamination shape is usually oblong or "peanut- coincides with the delamination on the second interface, and if
shaped" with its major axis oriented in the direction of fiber there is no delamination on that interface, the central zone will
orientation of the lower ply for that interface (Fig 12). simply vanish. Wing zones are triangular and bounded by the
Takeda et al (198 Ic) presented experimental results for blunt diagonals of the plate. Matrix cracks in the nonimpacted surface
ended, truncated hemispherical, and hemispherical impactors. lamina run parallel to the fibers from one edge of the plate to the
The appearance of transverse cracks was noticed for the first other, except for a central zone in which those cracks are inter-
time. Detailed measurements of the average spacing of matrix rupted in an area corresponding to delamination on the second
cracks in the damage zone created during impact were presented interface. In the internal lamina, 45° cracks are observed in an
in a following paper by Takeda et al (1981 b) and later by Wu and area corresponding to the first interface delamination, while 90°
Springer (1988a). Takeda et al (1981b) suggested that cracks are cracks are observed in the remaining area, corresponding to the
due to tensile stresses developed by membrane action due to second interface delamination. Cracks in the nonimpacted sur-
relatively large tensile transverse displacements during impact. A face layer are caused by tensile stresses generated by bending
theoretical approach for this problem was suggested but not de- during the first quarter of flexural vibration, whereas cracks on
veloped. Takeda et al (1982a) presented microscopic observa- the impacted face are caused by the tensile leading portion of the
tions showing both deiaminations and transverse matrix cracking. transient wave. Identical matrix crack patterns can be seen on
Some of the transverse cracks were perpendicular to the interface figures presented earlier by Takeda et al (1982a).

FIG 13. Delamination patterns for a [0,


90, 0) laminate: , outline of delamina-
tion at the first interface; , outline of
delamination at the second interface.

IX
90°
(a) (b)
FIG 12. Delamination patterns FIG 14. Matrix cracks in a [0, 90, 0] laminate (Liu and Malvern,
in a laminate after impact. 1987b).

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Appl Mech Rev vol 44, no 4, April 1991 Abrate: Laminated composite materials 173

Impact damage of SMC composites TABLE V Detailed maps of impact induced delaminations
ihumgh tin tin. kness of the laminate
Impact damage of SMC composites has been studied by Chatur-
vedi and Sierakowski (1983a,b,c; 1985) and Khetan and Chang
(1983), who showed that the damaged surface area increases Boll et alt 1986) Liuetal(1987a,b)
nonlinearly with the kinetic energy of the impactor. Khetan and Buynakctal (1988) Liu (1988)
Clark (1989) Preuss and Clark (1988)
Chang (1983) and Liu and Malvern (1987b) presented micro- Sierakowski et al (1976)
Guynn and O'Brien (1985)
graphs of the impacted surface showing circular crack rings. Hong and Liu (1989) Takeda et al (198 la)
Since, in SMC, reinforcement consists of short fibers oriented Josht and Sun (1985; 1987) Takeda etal (1982a)
randomly, the material is considered to be statistically isotropic in
the plane, and Liu and Malvern (1987b) concluded that the circu-
lar crack rings correspond to tensile precursor wave surfaces.

curves, since they possess a different number of interfaces (Fig


Spall f r a c t u r e 16). However, the total delaminated area varies linearly with the
Reed and Schuster (1969) and Schuster and Reed (1970) used the kinetic energy of the impactor, and a single curve is obtained for
flyer plate technique to determine the onset of spall fracture in all laminates (Fig 17). Similar results were also obtained for
boron-aluminum composites. The sequence of events leading to Kevlar-epoxy laminates (Malvern et al, 1989). Figures 18 and 19
the appearance of a tensile wave after reflection of a unidirec- show the relationship between the total delaminated area and the
tional compressive wave at a free surface is illustrated in Fig 15. projected delaminated area for graphite-epoxy and Kevlar-
Takeda et al (1986; 1987) conducted a number of tests to deter- epoxy (Malvern et al, 1989). It is interesting to note that for
mine the threshold speed for spall damage initiation Vsp. Vsp for Kevlar-epoxy the total delaminated area increases twice as fast
composites was much lower than that of the neat resin due to as the projected area in the range shown in Fig 19,
strain amplification. The effects of fiber reinforcement were
small, and the values of Vsp correlated well with interfacial shear
strengths.
o
o
D a m a g e size 140

Many investigators have reported on the evolution of damage 120 4-


size with impact velocity (Table V). Damage size is sometimes
o
taken as the projected delamination area as observed on C-scan or 100 4-
radiographs. Malvern et al (1987; 1989) showed that the pro- 0 +
jected delamination area varies linearly with the kinetic energy of 80 <%> +
the impactor but that different laminates will follow different ^_ a.
60

Cn t +
40
rO a
+ a
'XXP 4- a
20 - fc) a

(a) a
(d) ,o 9°
0 10 20 30 40
Kinetic Energy (J)
FIG 16. Projected delaminated area as a function of die imparted
kinetic energy for graphite-epoxy laminates (Malvern et al, 1989): O,
3 layers; +, 5 layers; •_;, 15 layers.
(e)
(b) o

-
<§»
c
(c) (£) o
O
o o

4-
o o
44- o
FIG 15. Development of a tensile pulse leading to spall, (a) Immedi- 4- O
ately after impact, compressive pulses travel in opposite directions 4- 0
away from the interface, (b) After reaching the free edge of the (lier 0^4-
plate, the left front now travels to the right, (c) A finite length com-
0 iO 20 30 40 50
pressive pulse travels to (he right, (d and e) After reaching the free
surface, the compressive pulse is transformed into a tensile pulse, Kinetic Energy (J)
(f) When the two leading edges meet, tensile stresses develop that FIG 17. Total delaminated area as a function of the imparted kinetic
might cause spall. energy for graphite-epoxy laminates (Malvern et al, 1989).

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174 Abrate: Laminated composite materials Appl Mech Rev vol 44, no 4, April 1991

TABLE VI. Data on delamination area increases with kinetic


energy of the impactor

Bishop (1985) Hong and Liu (1989)


Cantwell(1988a,b) Lai (1982)
Cantwelletal(1986) Leach et al (1987)
Cantwcll and Morton (1984b; Liu (1988)
1989) Malvern etal (1987; 1989)
Caprinoctal (1984) O'Kane and Bcnham (1986)
Curtis and Bishop (1984) Ramkumar and Thakar (1987)
Demuts and Sharpe (1987) Rhodes etal (1981)
Dobyns(l980) Sierakowski et al (1976)
Dorey(1987) Takedaetal(1981a)
Doreyctal(l978; 1985) Takamatsuetal (1986)
Gandhc and Griffin (1989) Vcrpoest etal (1987)
Goltesman et al (1987) Williams and Rhodes (1982)
Grady and Mcvn (1989) Wu and Springer (1988a)
Griffin (1987)
Projected Area (mm )
FIG 18. Total vs projected delaminatcd area for graphitc-epoxy lam-
inates (Malvern el al. 1989).

between the region where no detectable damage occurs and that


in which some damage is introduced (Avva et al, 1986). Experi-
mental difficulties associated with precise control of initial im-
pact velocity and the high cost of performing these tests make the
method unpractical (Hong and Liu, 1989).
Sjoblom (1987) showed that for low velocity impacts for
which the kinetic energy of the impactor was just above the
threshold value, a sudden drop in the measured contact force was
observed. This threshold force can be measured during a single
impact experiment and is easier to obtain than the threshold
kinetic energy to initiate delamination which requires performing
a number of impact tests and determining the size of the damaged
zone in each case, In addition, the damage initiation threshold
force was shown to follow the equation
Pinit = ch • (112)
where h is the laminate thickness and c is a constant determined
Projected Area (mm )
from experimental results. The initiation force threshold is deter-
FIG 19. Total vs projected delaminatcd area for Kcvlar-epoxy lami- mined from a single experiment and is relatively insensitive to
nates (Malvern el al, 1989). variations in impactor velocity. It was then proposed as a better
indicator of the onset of damage.

The linear variation of the delamination area shown in Figs 16


and 17 was reported by Sierakowski et al (1976) and confirmed EFFECT OF MATERIAL PROPERTIES
by many investigators (Table VI). This relationship can be writ-
ten as Impact damage is a combination of delamination, matrix crack-
ing, and fiber breakage. The first two types of failure are sensitive
K= fa +ki/\, (HI)
to matrix properties, whereas fiber breakage is more sensitive to
where fa is the threshold kinetic energy required to produce detect- the properties of the fibers. Improvements in the properties of the
able damage, A is the total delaminated area, and fa is the apparent constituents leads, in general, to improved impact damage re-
surface fracture energy. The fitted line for the data shown in Fig 16 sistance of the laminate, as several studies have shown. How-
gives a coefficient fa = 3440 lint for three-layer plates. A review ever, defining a better material system for a particular applica-
of similar data for glass-epoxy plates (Malvern et al, 1987) indi- tion is difficult because of an inadequate understanding of the
cated that very different values can be obtained depending on micromechanics of damage formation. The lack of an analytical
specimen fabrication techniques and other factors. However, dy- model to relate the properties of the fibers, the matrix, and the
namic fracture energies are always at least one order of magnitude fiber-matrix interface to the properties of the composite forces
larger than those measured using static test methods. development of new material systems to rely on tests to deter-
Sankar and Sun (1986) showed that preloads lower the thresh- mine the governing parameters. Experimental results reported by
old impact velocity for damage initiation. Determination of the Elber (1985) indicate that matrix properties govern the damage
threshold impact velocity or threshold kinetic energy of the im- threshold and determine the extent of impact damage. Fiber prop-
pactor required to initiate damage is quite difficult. Due to scatter erties, on the other hand, control the penetration resistance.
in the data, the value of fa determined by fitting the experimental
values of the damaged area versus the kinetic energy of the
impactor is quite inaccurate unless a very large number of tests Effect of m a t r i x p r o p e r t i e s
are performed. Quite a number of tests need to be performed by It is generally recognized that an increase in strain to failure of the
slowly increasing the impact velocity and determining the limit matrix will result in improved residual strength of the composite

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Appl Mech Rev vol 44, no 4, April 1991 Abrate: Laminated composite materials 175

after impact, due to better resistance to delamination and matrix Effect of fiber properties
cracking (Hirschbuehler, 1987; Evans and Masters, 1987). Testing
neat resin specimens, Hirschbuehler (1987) and Bowles (1988) Fiber strain energy has been pinpointed as one of the fiber param-
showed that high strain to failure resins were capable of resisting eters that would most significantly improve the properties of the
higher impact loads. When deflections become of the order of one composite. Higher fiber failure strains, with the same elastic
half of the specimen thickness, a significant fraction of the load is modulus, will result in higher energy absorption, especially since
carried by membrane action, and the maximum load or maximum the strain energy absorbed by the matrix represents a large por-
energy to failure of the resin specimen is a measure of the amount tion of the total strain energy. For the same impact energy, higher
of in-plane stress that can be generated before failure. capacity to absorb energy results in less fiber breakage and a
higher residual tensile strength. Secondary matrix damage which
The development of higher strain capability of the matrix is
occurs after initial fiber failure will also be reduced so that resid-
limited by the need to maintain satisfactory performance at high
ual compressive strength is also increased.
temperatures and in difficult environmental conditions. Several
new materials and, in particular, thermoplastics appear to meet Tests were conducted by Cantweil et al (1986) using AS 4
these two requirements and are seriously considered for use in high strain carbon fibers with mean tensile strength of 3.59 GPa,
structural applications. Most investigations deal with thermoset an elastic modulus of 235 GPa, a strain to failure 1.53%, and a
materials; thermoplastics, such as PEEK, behave quite differ- fiber diameter of 7.0 pirn. Results were compared to similar tests
ently, and have received comparatively little attention. Dorey et conducted on specimens with current high strength surface
al (1985) conducted a comparative study of carbon fiber lami- treated carbon fibers with a mean tensile strength of 2.70 GPa,
nates with epoxy and PEEK matrices. After impact, visible in- an elastic modulus of 2.35 GPa, a strain to failure of 1.14%, and
dentation showing evidence of plastic deformation and compres- a fiber diameter of 7.7 Jim. Both types of fibers had the same
sive cracks across surface fibers were observed for carbon-PEEK modulus, so that an increase in strain to failure corresponded to a
laminates, whereas no surface damage was present with carbon- similar increase in strength. Low velocity impact tests showed
epoxy laminates. Microscopic examination of various cross sec- that with the same failure modes, less damage was induced in the
tions of both types of laminates indicated that delaminations were laminates with high strain to failure fibers. For the same impact
significantly less extensive with carbon-PEEK laminates. For energy level of 6 J, the residual tensile strength was 100%, and
this reason, the compressive residual strength of carbon-PEEK the residual compressive strength was increased by 30%.
laminates was significantly higher than that of carbon-epoxy A study by Cantweil et al (1983) indicated that replacing the
laminates. These findings were confirmed in studies by Boll et al ±45° plies in 0, +45° laminates with a woven fabric improved the
(1986), Demuls and Sharpe (1987), and Griffin (1987). residual strength after impact by inhibition of delaminations and
matrix shear cracks.
The stress analysis of Sun and Rechack (1988b) showed that
adhesive layers placed along the interfaces of the laminae re-
duced interlaminar shear stresses during impact, which resulted
in reduced delamination. The introduction of a discrete layer of E F F E C T O F S T A C K I N G S E Q U E N C E AND
high strain resin for increased toughness, which creates what is TARGET GEOMETRY
called an interleaf system, has been discussed by several authors
(Hirschbuehler, 1985; 1987; Evans and Masters, 1987; Gandhe The importance of the stacking sequence on the impact resistance
and Griffin, 1989). In general, such a system delivers signifi- of laminates was first demonstrated by Ross and Sierakowski
cantly higher compression strength after impact as a result of (1973). Cantweil and Morton (1985b) studied the influence of
having less delamination, but it has the inconvenience of rais- target bending stiffness on low velocity impact damage in CFRP
ing the resin content of the laminate which results in a lower laminates using a drop-weight tester. Target stiffness was a dom-
modulus and more sensitivity to environmental conditions. Mas- inant parameter and controlled the mode of fracture. At low
ters (1987b) presented test results indicating that interleafing velocities, flexible targets responded primarily by bending which
produced only nominal increases in GV but significant increases generated high tensile stresses in the lowest ply. This caused
in Giif. Strong correlation between the strain energy release rate matrix cracks in the lowest ply, which were deflected at the
for mode II delamination and the residual compressive strength lowest interface to form a delamination, which in turn was de-
after impact was established, with higher values of Gnc corre- flected by matrix cracks in the layer above, and the process
sponding to higher residua! strength. repeated itself (Fig 20a). At intermediate impact velocities, dam-
Ying (1983) demonstrated the importance of the fiber matrix age in flexible targets originated from high contact stresses on the
interface on the performance of composites under impact condi- impacted surface (Fig 20b), and both types of damage were ob-
tions. For a single fiber imbedded in a matrix material loads are served. For stiffer targets, the damage patterns were similar, al-
transferred, at the fiber end, from the matrix to the fiber by shear though they appeared in reverse order; for low velocity impacts,
stresses. The critical length for load transfer is related to xy, the damage was initiated by contact stresses, and bending induced
shear strength of the interface, through damage appeared at intermediate velocities. Similar observations
were reported by Cantweil (1988a), who studied high velocity
lc = Cfdfl2xy, (113) impact ±45° laminated beams with different thicknesses. The
where oy is the tensile strength of the fiber and df is the fiber projected delaminated area determined from C-scans varies lin-
diameter. Fiber finishes and matrix properties significantly af- early with the kinetic energy of the impactor (Fig 21) as shown in
fected interfacial shear strength. Good correlation was obtained many other studies (Table VI). The slopes of the fitted lines in Fig
between the critical length determined by single filament tests 21 are 224.0, 97.39, and 38.38 mm2/J for 4-, 8-, and 32-ply
and the fracture toughness of composites, defined as the energy laminates, respectively. The first two values are in the inverse
required for fracture initiation. Peiffer (1979) showed that impact ratio of the number of interfaces for these lay-ups (7/3), which
resistance of glass-epoxy composites can be significantly im- suggests a similar failure mode, whereas the slope for the 32-ply
proved by introducing a rubbery interface between the glass fi- laminate did not vary in the same proportion, implying that a
bers and the rigid epoxy. The properties of the composite are different failure mode may be present. Different failure modes
dependent on both the interlayer thickness and its glass transition were indeed observed during microscopic examinations of the
temperature Tg. damaged specimens.

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176 Abrate: Laminated composite materials App! Mech Rev vol 44, no 4, April 1991

AX:
zr (a)
"TIT T \

(b)

n:
Thickness (mm)
FIG 20. Damage development in (a) rigid and (b) flexible targets. FIG 22. Variation of damage threshold energy with target thickness
for (45°) laminates. O, low velocity impact (Cantwell, 1988a); +, high
velocity impact (Cantwell and Morton, 1989).

Kinetic Energy (J) Thickness (mm)


FIG 21. Projected dclaminalion area vs kinetic energy of the impac- FIG 23. Variation of the kinetic energy required for perforation with
tor for graphite-cpoxy laminates (Cantwell and Morton, 1989): +, 4 plate thickness for (45°) specimens (Cantwell, 1988a; Cantwell and
plies; O. 8 plies; iZ, 32 plies. Morton, 1989): +, high velocity impact; O, low velocity impact.

Target thickness influenced the first damage threshold energy by the length of the beam specimen, and test data suggest a linear
for the ±45° laminates (Fig 22). For low thicknesses, damage relationship. The energy required for complete perforation of the
initiated on the lowest ply, and increasing the thickness resulted specimen is dissipated in shearing of the fibers and increases with
in a higher threshold energy. For thick laminates, failure resulted increasing thickness.
from high contact stresses in the top layer, and increasing the The energy required to achieve complete penetration was
thickness resulted in lower damage threshold energies. An opti- shown to increase with plate thickness. Replotting the data from
mum target thickness was found in which damage initiated on the Cantwell (1988a) and Cantwell and Morton (1989) (Fig 23), the
top and bottom layer simultaneously and gave the highest resis- perforation energy was found to increase with the square of the
tance to damage initiation. The results given by Cantwell (1988a) plate thickness for both low velocity and high velocity tests on
for high velocity impacts and by Cantwell and Morion (1989) for the same laminates under the same conditions. The energy level
low velocity impact for the same laminates with the same speci- required for perforation by a small spherical impactor with high
men size and boundary conditions are shown in Fig 22. It is seen velocity was the same as that for a larger mass traveling at a
that the trend is similar, but that threshold energy values are much smaller initial velocity.
higher in low velocity tests. In general, the laminate stacking sequence had two main ef-
For high velocity impacts, varying the length of beam speci- fects: laminates with 0° outer plies were more weakened by
mens or the diameter of circular plate samples had no influence delaminations than laminates with ±45° plies (Baker et al, 1985);
on (he damage initiation threshold energy, because the deforma- and generally, laminates woven ±45° plies showed improved
tion was localized near the impact region. For low velocity im- delamination resistance from laminates unidirectional ±45° plies
pact, however, that threshold energy level is strongly influenced (Baker et al, 1985; Curtis and Bishop, 1984).

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Appl Mech Rev vol 44, no 4, April 1991 Abrate: Laminated composite materials 177

DAMAGE PREDICTION mode fracture process using an appropriate failure criterion and
material properties determined following standard test proce-
Damage development in a laminate subjected to foreign object dures. Accurate determination of the transverse normal stress and
impact is complex, since several failure modes are present, and the transverse shear stress requires the use of three-dimensional
they usually interact with each other. A comprehensive approach finite elements and is generally expensive for a dynamic analysis.
for damage prediction includes the determination of impact force, A review of mixed mode fracture in composite laminates (Garg,
induced stresses, and the application of a suitable failure criterion 1988) concluded that reliable criteria for mixed mode failure are
for initial failure. In this section we will review the analyses not yet available, even though simple expressions such as
performed in order to determine in detail the state of stress and,
(Gi/G, c f+ (GVG llc )' , = l, (114)
by using some appropriate failure criterion, explain the observed
failure modes. were employed. Jones et al (1988) present a review of the litera-
ture concerning impact damage in composite laminates. Experi-
mental procedures employed in 24 different studies of mode I
Analysis of i m p a c t stresses
delamination are examined in detail. The values obtained for the
Beam and plate models are used very effectively to determine the critical strain energy release rate Gic were remarkably close in
overall target response and the contact force history. However, spite of differences in test methods. For mode II fracture, great
impact damage occurs in a relatively small region surrounding variability in Gnc values were reported. In view of these difficul-
the impact point, and delamination, an important failure mode to ties, simplified approaches have been proposed.
be predicted, is governed by transverse shear and transverse nor- Dobyns (1980) and Dobyns and Porter (1981) modified the
mal stresses. To correctly estimate stresses in that region for the analytical model developed by Sun and Chattopadhay (1975).
purpose of predicting failure and damage development, more The contact force was distributed over a small area instead of
detailed modeling is required. being concentrated at a point. This allowed the transverse shear
Joshi and Sun (1985) used a two-dimensional finite element force resultant to remain finite throughout the contact zone. The
model to analyze three-layer cross-ply laminated beams subjected size of the load patch was taken as the radius of the impacting
to impact. The contact force was distributed according to the sphere. Delaminations in a given plate were assumed to take
classical Hertzian theory, and a half sine wave variation in time place when the transverse shear force resultant exceeded a thresh-
was considered. Results indicated that, near the impact point, old value. Ramkumar and Chen (1983a) also used a shear de-
flexural strains did not vary linearly through the thickness of each formable plate model with distributed pressure loading to deter-
ply, and transverse shear stresses did not follow a parabolic distri- mine the response of composite laminates to impact loading.
bution through the thickness of the laminate, as would be expected Delaminations were assumed to extend from the impact site to the
using lamination theory. Instead, a sharp shear stress concentration location where Qxlh attained a value of 3.45 MPa. For the graph-
was observed close to the impacted surface, and a sharp increase ite-epoxy plate tested, this failure criterion gave good agreement
in flexural stresses was observed at the impacted surface. The between analytical predictions and test data. Graves and Koontz
shear stress concentration was more pronounced for [0, 90, 0) (1988) followed the same approach and showed that for several
laminates than for those with a [90, 0, 90] lay-up. This analysis, laminates with graphite fibers with epoxy or PEEK matrices and
although not followed by the application of a failure criterion, different thickness and lay-ups, delaminations were confined to a
gave some indication of the initial failure mode. After initial fail- zone surrounding the impact point in which the transverse shear
ure, internal ply failures and delaminations, the size of which force exceeded 800 lb. This corresponded to an average stress
needs to be determined, were introduced. Without modifications QJh of 23.3 MPa for graphite-epoxy laminates and 20.5 MPa for
the finite element model could not predict subsequent behavior. graphite-PEEK laminates. These values are to be compared with
Goering (1986) also recognized the limitations of beam and the 34.5 MPa reported by Dobyns (1980) and Dobyns and Porter
plate models and pointed out the similarity between the impact (1981). The value of 3.45 MPa given by Ramkumar and Chen
problem and the static three-point bending test, for which Whit- (1983a) is one order of magnitude lower, which suggests that it
ney (1985) presented an elasticity solution. A special two-dimen- might have been reported incorrectly.
sional finite element model, with two translations and one rota- Liu (1988) studied the delamination of two layer plates during
tion per node, which accounts for several different layers of impact. The length and width of the specimens were kept identi-
materials inside each element was used to determine accurately cal; the specimens were held in the same holder and were sub-
through-the-thickness transverse shear stress distributions. Stress jected to the same impactor. In this manner, the number of param-
distributions followed the same trends as those predicted by the eters involved was significantly reduced to include the effect of
elasticity solution. material properties, stacking sequence, thickness of the speci-
Joshi and Sun (1987) studied quasiisotropic laminates by per- men, and impact energy. It was postulated that the potential for
forming two-dimensional analyses for normal cross sections ori- delamination of the interface depended on the bending stiffness
ented in each one of the fiber directions. With this approach, the mismatch between the two plies. The mismatch coefficient was
major types of damage observed after impact experiments could defined as
be interpreted. Sun and Rechack (1988b) also used a two-dimen-
sional finite element model to analyze laminated beams with M = rOi/O*) - Dy(e,)l/[D«(0°) - D,,(90°)1, (115)
adhesive layers and showed that the presence of these layers where the D;/s are components of the D matrix relating moment
helped reduce interlaminar shear stresses during impact, thus resultants to plate curvatures. Since Dn and D22 are much larger
reducing damage. than the other components, only Dn is considered, and

M= [Du(0ft) - O,,(0,)l/[Du(O°) - Du(90°)l. (116)


Prediction of d e l a m i n a t i o n s
Since
A rigorous approach for predicting impact induced delaminations
would require detailed knowledge of transverse normal and shear Dn = \lv\Qn cos4 6 + 622 sin4 0
stresses at each interface. Delamination is then studied as a mixed + 2(212 + 2(266) sin2 0 cos2 01, (117)

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178 Abrate: Laminated composite materials AppI Mech Rev vol 44, no 4, April 1991

it can be shown that, for laminates where reached under the impact point was selected. The rate of change
in stress was taken as
9, = 8,, + 90°, (118)
R — Omax/tm (121)
the mismatch parameter simply becomes
where tm was the time at which omax was reached. The duration of
M = cos 20. (119)
the stresses tf was taken to be the contact time. Delamination was
Thus, for this type of laminate, the stiffness mismatch coefficient also assumed to be influenced by the difference in inplane stiff-
does not depend on the material properties. For a [90/01 laminate ness between the two plies where the delamination occurred,
we can then rotate the coordinate system and for each value of 9
determine the value of M. Figure 24 shows that the variation of AG = G « - 6 o ' e , (122)
M with orientation follows two peanut-shaped curves similar to where g.„ was the reduced stiffness along the fiber direction and
the shape of actual delaminations. Considerations similar to those Qm was the transformed reduced stiffness in a direction at an
of Clark (1989) permitted the selection of the solid curve as the angle 8. The angle 0 was defined as the angle between the plies
one corresponding to positive values of M and capable of causing above and below the delamination. For convenience, a non-
delaminations. The shape of this curve corresponded to that of dimensional in-plane stiffness mismatch parameter
observed delaminations, and the orientation corresponding to the
maximum value of M was the direction in which delamination Q' = Afi/(Gi»•- &y), (123)
developed. The study of six other laminates, [0/901, [0/75], [0/601, was defined, which was similar to the bending mismatch coeffi-
(0/45J, 10/301. and [0/15|, showed that predictions of the orienta- cient of Liu (1988) in Eq (116). The length of the delamination
tion of delaminations based on the parameter M were in excellent was also influenced by DOB and Deo, the flexural rigidities of the
agreement with experimental results. It was also found that the top and bottom portions in the theta direction. Finally, the critical
delaminated area was proportional to the magnitude of M. crack length /o was estimated by
Wu and Springer (1988b) used eight-node brick elements to (124)
h = 2KlJ(nS^),
determine all six components of the stress tensor throughout the
entire plate. The finite element program was that developed by where Sir was the tensile strength and K\z the mode I critical stress
Wu and Chang (1989) and discussed earlier. The objective of this intensity factor. The length of the major axis of the delamination
study was to develop a simple approach for predicting the loca- can now be written as
tion and size of delaminations. Delaminations at the interface
between any two plies were assumed to have a major axis of /»=/ Omax, - — , (/, Q*, Doo, Dg8, /0, Kiel. (125)
length In which was a function of a number of parameters: tm

In = / ( o , R, tf, A g , />'', D", /„, Kl:), (120)


Utilizing Buckingham's pi theorem, a number of non-
dimensional groups are formed and, by considering the case
where o = stress at the location of damage, where delaminations occurred near the back side of the plate,
R = rate at which the stress changes, certain simplifications are possible. The expression for the de-
tf= duration of the stress, lamination length In is arbitrarily taken in the form
A(9 = difference in reduced stiffness of the two plies
adjoining the delamination, In Onmn.ll} Y'2 Doo
(126)
D', D" = flexural rigidities of the layers above and below the V Im Di
interface considered,
/o = initial size of the flaw present prior to impact, Similarly, the delamination width wo is taken as
and K< — resistance of the material to separation. Wn
f „ i Y'7
Doo
O m a x Ml t/
(QT (127)
Kk Dm
Although all six stress components may contribute to delami-
nation, it was postulated that delamination was caused mainly by and the constants G - G o are assumed to be independent of mate-
tensile stresses normal to the plate. Since interlaminar normal rial properties, lay-up, and impact velocity. The following values
stresses varied with position and time, Omax, the maximum value were determined from a least square curve fitting procedure of a
large number of experimental results:

0° G = 640, G = |, G=l, G —= 5,2' G = ;


(128)
G = 25Q, C7 = i , G = &> = $, Go = 0.
Notice that since Go = 0, the width of the delamination is insen-
sitive to flexural rigidities. Equations (126) and (127) can be used
\ \ to determine the size of delaminations between any two plies in
1 I the laminate, and predictions are within 20% of values obtained
\ / by C-scan.

rZ2i\ / " " ^ 90°


Sun and Grady (1988a) used a two-dimensional finite element
model to study propagation of an existing delamination crack
\ 3 7 V^ \ /
J during the impact of a laminated beam by a rubber ball. The
threshold impact velocity that caused propagation of the delami-
nation crack was used in the dynamic analysis, and the crack
i 1
1 1 closure method was used to determine the critical strain energy
release rate. The analysis showed that the mode I contribution to
the strain energy release rate was negligible and that crack prop-
agation was a mode 11 fracture process. Dynamic values of the
FIG 24. Variation of the bending stiffness mismatch coefficient for a critical strain energy release rate obtained were much higher than
[0, 901 laminate. the static values obtained by previous researchers.

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Appl Mech Rev vol 44, no 4, April 1991 Abrate: Laminated composite materials 179

Prediction of internal ply d a m a g e


In addition to interply delamination, impact causes fiber failures
and matrix cracks. Prediction of this type of failure and the size
of the damaged zone requires accurate stress calculations in a
small area, including the contact zone.
>
Greszczuk and Chao (1977) used an axisymmetric finite ele-
I
ment model of a plate being impacted to determine the internal
stresses. Failure was determined using a quadratic-type criterion. '
Plate thickness was shown to influence the type of failure. Thin
,
plates failed in bending, whereas thick plates failed due to contact
stresses. Shivakumar et al (1985b) presented a method to predict II
damage fiber breakage and matrix splits due to transverse tensile
stress or in-plane shear stress. The approach was based on a quasi-
static analysis of low velocity impact loadings including the ef- ,,
fects of geometrical nonlinearities. The Tsai-Wu quadratic failure II
criterion was used to calculate damage regions, and the maximum
stress criteria was used to identify the failure mode. Reasonable
agreement with test results was reported. Bachrach and Hansen
(1989) and Yener and Wolcott (1989) used the same interior to
predict ply failure in Impacted laminated cylindrical shells. FIG 25. Different failure zones during the perforation of a laminated
Gu and Sun (1987) proposed a simple criterion to predict plate: region I, shear of the fibers; region II, tensile Fiber failure;
failure of an impacted SMC panel based on strain energy consid- region III, tensile fiber failure and delamination.
erations. Impact induced stresses were determined using nine-
node isoparametric plate elements (Tan and Sun, 1985). A
transverse fracture energy. Theoretical predictions and experi-
weighted strain energy density is defined as
mental results on CFRP laminated beams and plates were in good
U = Uv+$Us, (129) agreement, except for thick targets in which shear failure oc-
curred on top and was then followed by tensile failure at the bot-
where Uv is the dilatational strain energy density and Us, the tom. For thick laminates, three zones could be observed through
distortional strain energy; these are given by the thickness (Fig 25). First, the Fibers were sheared out, then they
(y,.= _Ul-2v)[oit (130) failed in tension, and then delamination became the dominant
• OxxOvv + Ovv
failure mode.
(A = 5(1 + v ) T Oxv - OxvOv 2(1 + V)fc - Ovz + Oxz

and p is a weighting coefficient. An equivalent stress o was RESIDUAL PROPERTIES


defined as
After impact damage, the laminate properties will be altered, and
0 2 = 2EU. (131)
the residual properties of impact damaged specimens subjected to
Failure occurred when the equivalent stress 0 reached a critical tension, compression, bending, and shear loading must be deter-
value rjcr. For the material used in that study, Ccr and P were mined. The fatigue behavior of composite laminates will also be
determined by matching the analytical solutions with experimen- affected by impact damage. A recent review of test results is
tal data for an impact speed of 1250 in./s. The value available (Jones et al, 1987), so this topic will not be covered
Ocr = 17,000 psi was almost the same as the flexural strength of here. Experimental results on residual strength after impact were
the material, and P = 0.3. With these two constants, very good presented by many authors (Table VII).
predictions of the damaged area were obtained for all other im-
pact velocities.
Residual tensile strength
The residual tensile strength of a laminate after impact decreases
Resistance to ballistic perforation
as the initial kinetic energy of the impactor increases and follows
Several investigators, including Gupta and Davids (1966) and a curve of the type shown in Fig 26. In region I, no damage occurs
Vasudev and Meehlman (1987), reported on experiments de- as long as the impact velocity remains below a certain threshold
signed to assess the penetration resistance of fiberglass-rein- value. In region II, damage occurs, and, as the velocity increases,
forced plastics subjected to small caliber projectiles. Cantwell strength is rapidly reduced until a maximum damage size is
and Morton (1985a) proposed a simple model for predicting the reached. For higher velocities, complete perforation occurs leav-
ballistic perforation energy of a composite target. The total en- ing a hole with a diameter independent of impact velocity so that
ergy required for complete perforation is taken as the sum of the the residual strength is nearly constant. The range of speeds
energy absorbed for target flexure E/, contact deformation £<., associated with each region depends on a number of parameters,
delamination Ea, and shear out Es. High velocity impact excited including plate thickness, size and shape of impactor, and the
only local modes of target response, and it was assumed that the material properties.
mass of the zone affected was equal to that of the projectile. The To estimate the residual strength of a laminate after impact, it
energy required to create delamination was estimated by multi- is generally assumed that impact induced defects introduce the
plying the surface of the delaminated area, determined from C- same strength reduction as a hole or a crack of the same size
scans, by 700 J/m*, the fracture energy for delamination. Micro- (Chamis and Ginty, 1989). Uniaxial failure of composite lami-
graphs showed that (lie projectile has removed a frustrum shaped nates in the presence of stress concentrations due to circular holes
shear plug. The energy dissipated in target shear out was esti- and cracks was studied by Nuismer and Whitney (1975). For an
mated by multiplying the area of the sheared surface by the infinite orthotropic plate with a hole of radius R, if a uniform

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180 Abrate: Laminated composite materials Appl Mech Rev vol 44, no 4, April 1991

TABLL V]]. Residual strength after impact larger holes cause greater strength reductions than do smaller
holes. This is known as the "hole size effect" and cannot be
explained by a stress concentration factor approach, since all
Compression
circular holes have the same stress concentration factor. How-
Adsitand Wazczak(l979) Avva(1983) ever, in the case of smaller holes, the perturbation from a uniform
Avery el al( 1975; 1981) Bishop (1985) stress distribution ahead of the hole is much more concentrated
Avvaelal (1986) Caprino (1984) near the hole boundary. Based on differences in normal stress
Awcrbuch and Hahn(l976) Cantwell el al (1983; 1986) distribution ahead of the hole, Nuismer and Whitney (1975) pro-
Bishop (1985) Cleric-octal (1989) posed two failure criteria. With the point stress criterion, failure
Butcher (1979) Curtis and Bishop (1984) occurs when at some distance do ahead of the hole the axial stress
Butcher and Fernbaek (1981) Dcmutsetal(1985)
first reaches On, the unnotched tensile strength of the material,
Canl\vellelal(1983; 1984a; 1986) Demuts and Sharped 987))
that is, when
Cantwell and Morton (1984b; 1985b Doreyetal(1985))
Caprinoclal (1983b) Bvans and Masters (1987) Ov(A\0) I A=«+J„ = <To . (135)
Clericoetal(1989) Griffin (1987)
Crivelli-Viscontictal(1983) Gres7.czuk(l982) The average stress criterion assumes that failure occurs when the
Curtis and Bishop (1984) Guynn and O'Brien (1985) average value of the axial stress over some fixed distance ao
Dcmulsct al (1985) Hirschbuchlcr(1985; 1987) ahead of the hole reaches the unnotched tensile strength of the
Doreyetal(l985) Leach et al (1987) material, that is, when
Gandhc and Griffin (1989) Levin (1986)
Husmanetal(1975) Mousley(1984)
Lai (1983d) O,.(A-,0) dx = 0o. (136)
Llorente(1989)
Uorcnlc and Mar (1989) T h e characteristic distances a and d were shown (Nuismer and
Malvern et al (1987) Whitney, 1975) to remain constant for several glass-epoxy and
O'Kane and Bcnham (1986) graphite-epoxy laminates for which a = 0.15 in. and d = 0.004 in.
Sankarand Sun(1986)
With the point stress criterion, the strength of an infinite plate
Shanna(1981)
with a circular hole is given by
Takarnatsuetal(1986)
Verpoest et al (1987) cS/cro = 2/(2 + Q + 3 # - ( A T - 3)(5£? - %\)}, (137)

where £i = RI(R + do). For large holes, tj = 1 and the classical


stress concentration result, oS/Oo = KT is recovered. For small
holes, £i tends to zero and ON = Oo, as expected. For a plate with
stress o is applied in the v direction at infinity, the normal stress
a central crack
Ov along the .v-axis in front of the hole is approximated by
0«/rJo = ( l - © " 2 . (138)
R
o,W)) = ^ 2 + ?- •3
where ^2 = e/(c + do), and the fracture toughness is given by
VA" J
KQ = ON(pc)"2 = oofpc( 1 - $)]"2. (139)
• (KT - 3) 5 - -7 , (132)
L [X J J J For very small crack lengths KQ = 0 and for large cracks, the
asymptotic value
where KT is the orthotropic stress concentration factor for an
infinite width plate given by Ke = Oo(2pdoyn (140)
2 r*—T~ . AnAn-A] is reached. Expressions similar to Eqs (138) and (139) are ob-
AT = 1 + yAuAiz -A12 + •-- „-; — (133)
An 2/166 tained when the average stress criterion is used. Comparison of
notched to unnotched strength ratios ON/OO for plates with a circu-
For an infinite anisotropic plate with a crack of length 2c, we
lar hole and with a crack as a function of defect size as given by
have the exact solution:
Eqs (138) and (139) show that cracks with length 2c provide the
c.v(.v,0) = C.Y/(.Y2 - c2)"2 = /Ci.Y/[pc(-Y2 - c 2 )]' (134) same strength reduction as holes with radius R = c.
To account for the presence of a damage zone at the crack
In both cases, the presence of defects introduces stress concentra-
tip in which matrix cracking, delamination, and fiber breakage
tions, l-'or tension specimens with various sized circular cutouts,
occur, a modified critical stress intensity factor is defined as

Kff = ON Vp(c + Co), (141)

<-* as was done to account for the plastic zone size in metals. T h e
initial flaw size c was taken so that Kg- approached the asymptotic
-J)
ni
limit KQ as crack length c vanished, which yielded c = 2d. With
U this r value, Eq (141) gives a nearly constant stress intensity
•J)
factor. For a long crack (<; > d), we have the approximation
I !
S
II i III 0,v Co
(142)
H
1 C + Co
0J :
i Awerbuck and Hahn (1976) studied boron-aluminum and
K i n e t i c Energy boron-titanium metal matrix composites of the type used for
FIG 26. Typical variation of residual tensile strength wilh initial engine fan blades. The effect of damage was assumed to be
kinetic energy of the impaclor. equivalent to that of a through-the-thickness crack with a width

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Appl Mech Rev vol 44, no 4, April 1991 Abrate: Laminated composite materials 181

2a equal to that of the actual damage zone. The ratio of residual For an unnotched specimen, there is an effective flaw size co such
to unnotched strength was given by that

OR l Co C[ c = Ao)Ws, (155)
(143)
Go (0 V
Cl) + (
) where ws is the area under the stress-strain curve for an un-
where the finite width correction factor was determined from notched specimen. In order to relate residual strength to the ki-
netic energy of impact, it was assumed that the difference be-
Y(c) = 1 + 0.1282(2c/w) + 0.288 I (2cIw)2 + 1,5254(2c/uf (144) tween the notched and unnotched work per unit area to fracture
was proportional to the kinetic energy per unit thickness, that is,
Caprino (1983a) showed that for fiber dominated failure of
laminates with a notch of length 2L, the ratio of cracked versus ws - wt = KWKE . (156)
unnotched strength was given by
This leads to the equation
OR/GO = (Co/c)" (145)
0R/0O = [ 1 - KWKFJWS] (157)
where the parameter m = 0.31 was found to be constant, irrespec-
tive of material system, type of laminate, and shape of disconti- Lai (1983b) determined experimentally the kinetic energy of
nuity (hole, slit). ex, has the physical meaning of the length of an the impactor, the kinetic energy absorbed by the impacted plate
existing defect in the material. The two parameters, o<> and co, are la and l,i, the energy absorbed by delamination. The energy ab-
to be determined experimentally. Notice that in their study of sorbed by fiber breakage, //, was then calculated using
impact damage of sandwich structures with graphite -epoxy lam- la = Id + If, (158)
inate facings, Llorente and Mar (1989) reduced their experimen-
tal data using the equation and, since (7 is the energy required to create a through-the-thick-
ness crack of unit surface area, w e have
C« = //, (2r,) ' (146)
Id = duAdn (159)
where //, was a damage parameter, r, the radius of contact, and
»i = 0.28 for all lay-ups tested. Later, Caprino et al (1983b) and // = 2chG\c. (160)
Caprino (1984) considered the residual strength of impact dam- Substituting into Eq (142), we obtain
aged laminates and assumed that strength reduction due to im-
pact damage was equivalent to that of a notch of size c. The size On _ f Co
(161)
of the equivalent notch was assumed to be related to the impact Go co + Jfl2hG\c
energy as
In summary, the residual tensile strength after impact is re-
c = k(f. (147) lated to the damage size and the kinetic energy of the impactor.
Impact damage is equivalent to a clean hole with the same diam-
Combining Eqs (145) and (146) leads to
eter or a slit with the same length as the damage width measured
Or/Go = (co/c)". (148) on C-scans. The laminate strength decreases from its initial value
to that of a laminate with a clean hole with a diameter equal to
A number of experimental results were fitted with this equation.
that of the impactor.
Avva et al (1986) assumed that 2c, the length of the effective
through-the-thiekness crack, was related to the kinetic energy per
unit thickness W by Residual compressive strength
c= k{W-W»), (149) When loaded in compression, impact damaged laminates experi-
ence significant strength reductions, due mostly to local insta-
where k was a constant and W{, a threshold value of W. Using the
bilities. T h e study of delamination buckling and overall panel
average stress criterion [Eq (137)|, the strength of an infinite plate
instability will be discussed in the next section. With laminated
with a central crack was given by
composites, even low velocity impacts can induce delaminations
<fi/Oo=[(l - 0 / ( 1 + O r 2 ; (150) which cause drastic reductions in compressive strength. For com-
pressive post-impact testing, special fixtures designed to prevent
with C, = cl(c + co), we obtain global buckling must be utilized [see Guynn and O'Brien (1985),
OR/CM, = ! ( 2 / c / a o ) ( V V - Wo) + 1| (151) for example]. Baker et al (1985) presented an extensive summary
of 18 experimental studies on the influence of delamination dam-
Husman et al (1975) considered a plate of orthotropic con- age on compressive strength. In these studies, flaws were intro-
struction with a narrow slit of length 2c subjected to a tensile duced by impact damage or artificially during specimen prepara-
stress. The energy release rate was given by tion. A review of selected theoretical studies of delamination
Gk = KlilSnSuKSii/Su) + (2Sn + S^S^ni (152) problems is also provided. Another overview of compressive
strength of impact damaged laminates is given by Jones and
where the Si/s were the plate compliances and the stress intensity Baker (1985).
factor was
Jones et al (1985) described the results of a joint experimental
Kk = cr/pc. (153)
and theoretical investigation. The analysis predicted that as the
size of damage increases, a stage is reached after which a signifi-
Combining Eqs (152) and (153) and defining the work per unit
2 cant increase in damage results in only a relatively small decrease
volume required to break the notched specimen its W>, = ca 5W2,
in residual strength.
we get
Cantwell et al (1984a) studied the effect of impact and subse-
G\c = A(c + a>)Wh (154) quent fatigue damage on the compressive strength of C F R P lam-
with inates. T h e specimens were impacted, placed in a fixture de-
A = p\2(SvJS22)l(S2iSu)h2 + (2Sn + S«,)/2Sn 11 signed to p r o v i d e support along the e d g e s and to p r e v e n t

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182 Abrate: Laminated composite materials Appl Mech Rev vol 44, no 4, April 1991

out-of-plane deformation, and subjected to compression fatigue


X
for a given number of cycles. The specimens were then tested to
determine the residual compressive strength of the material.
Takamatsu et al (I986) conducted impact tests on laminates
\Y v\ ^ " b
under compression using a spherical impactor. For a given veloc- c
ity of the l I mm steel ball, failure occurred during impact above
\ \ — d
a certain value of the compressive strain. This value decreased
significantly from the static compressive strain and reached an \ \
asymptotic value as the impact velocity increased. It was also
shown that this threshold value corresponded to residual com-
pressive strength after impact.

Delamination buckling
Impact induced deiaminations can buckle under compressive load
and subsequently spread, causing further decrease in the com-
pressive load carrying capacity of the structure. Instability modes
of a delaminated composite consist of global, local, and mixed Nondimensional crack length a
buckling modes, as illustrated in Fig 27. For very short deiamina- FIG 29. Buckling load of team plate with delamination as a function
tions, global instability occurs, whereas for very long deiamina- of the nondimensional parameter h = hlt (Simitses et al, 1985): (a)
tions local instabilities are observed. In the intermediate range, h = 0.02; (b) Ti = 0.10; (c) 7i = 0.20; (d) h = 0.50.
mixed modes are observed.
The buckling load of an homogeneous axially loaded plate
with a symmetrically located delamination was studied by results previously obtained by Chai et al (1981) were recovered.
Simitses et al (1985). Since the delamination extended across the Post-buckling behavior and delamination growth were examined
entire width of the plate (Fig 28), a one-dimensional mode was by Yin et al (1986) and Yin and Wang (1984). The effect of
used. Defining nondimensional parameters, a —a/L, h = hit, and transverse shear deformation on the instability of delaminated
p = P/Ppcrf, the ratio of the critical load of the delaminated plate beam plates was studied by Kardomateas and Schmueser (1987).
to that of the perfect plate, results obtained for a clamped- Including these effects was shown to decrease the critical load
clamped plate are shown in Fig 29. When a > h, the buckling value, particularly in the range where mixed mode buckling oc-
loads were significantly reduced. For thin film deiaminations, the curs. However, the extent of the different modes was not affected.
Buckling of a circular plate with a concentric delamination
was studied by Yin and Fei (1984). Results are similar to those of
H— (a) Simitses et al (1985) for beams. Bottega and Maewal (1983)
studied delamination buckling and growth in a comprcssively
loaded two-layer circular plate. Delamination growth was as-
sumed to be governed by a Griffith-type criterion, Kassapoglou
and Abbot (1988) proposed a simplified approach to predict
delamination buckling of a sandwich panel with an elliptical
delamination.
in the studies just mentioned, delamination growth was as-
sumed to occur when the strain energy release rate for a given
geometry and material system exceeded the energy required to
produce additional delamination. A strength of materials ap-
proach can also be used (Vizzini and Lagace, 1987). The inter-
laminar stresses near the delamination were calculated, and de-
lamination growth was assumed to occur when these stresses
exceeded the strength of the interface. A quadratic delamination
criterion (QDC) was first proposed by Brewer and Lagace (1988)
to predict the onset of free-edge delamination. The QDC pre-
dicted that delamination occurs when
FIG 27. Buckling modes of a delaminated beam plate: (a) initial
configuration, (b) global instability, (c) local instability, (d) combined (0Zz/Z')2 + (Ou/Z'v,)2 + (o 2 z/Z s2 ) 2 = 1, (162)
local global mode. sl sl
where Z' is the through-the-thickness strength, and Z and Z are
the interlaminar shear strength in the 1-z and 2-z planes, respec-
tively. Negative interlaminar stresses On in Eq (162) should be
ignored, since they do not contribute to the delamination process.
The bars over o--. 0i z , and an in Eq (162) indicate that these
stresses have to be averaged over a certain characteristic length.
Assuming the boundary conditions at the delamination tip to be
clamped, normal deflections are zero and stresses at the interface
cannot be predicted. Vizzini and Lagace (1987) introduced a
beam on elastic foundation model (Fig 30) for studying the stabil-
ity of a partially delaminated sublaminate. Experimental results
F(G 28. One-dimensional model of delaminated beam plate loaded indicated a linear relationship between delamination length and
comprcssively. the "height" of the center of the buckle for the initiation of

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Appl Mech Rev vol 44, no 4, April 1991 Abrate: Laminated composite materials 183

tile specimens were (+45/-45)zi glass-epoxy laminates. Speci-


men size was 60 x 19 mm with thicknesses of approximately 1
mm for the brittle specimens and 2 mm for the ductile specimens.
The objective of the study was to determine and correlate changes
in bending rigidities of the beam and changes in flexural strengths
for very low impact velocities. The initial modulus was measured
FIG 30. Beam on elastic foundation model for a dclaminatcd beam using a three-point bending fixture with a 50 mm span. Impact
plate.
was applied with a drop-weight machine supported on a 50 mm
span with a 10 mm spherical impactor. The impact was applied at
midspan. For the ductile specimens a significant degradation of
delamination growth. Similar trends were predicted with a sim- both flexural modulus and flexural strength was observed. Losses
plified analytical model. increased with increasing impact energy, and a strong correlation
Kardomateas (1989) included large deformation effects for was observed between stiffness losses and strength losses. For
the delaminated layer. These effects were found to be significant, brittle specimens the situation was quite different; no losses were
leading to a less stiff growth resistant system. observed until complete failure occurred.
Whitcomb (198 I) studied post-buckled through-width delam- The retention of flexural stiffness and flexural strength of
inations in laminated coupons using two-dimensional four-node graphite-epoxy, Kevlar-epoxy, and glass-epoxy plates after im-
isoparametric quadrilateral elements. Kapania and Wolfe (1987) pact was studied by Malvern et al (1989). As discussed before,
used beam elements to study buckling and post-buckling crack the projected delaminated area increased linearly with imparted
growth in beam plates with a single delamination. This approach energy. The variation of the strength retention factor (residual
was ex tended by Kapania and Woi fe (1989) to case where several strength/strength of undamaged plate) and the stiffness retention
delaminations were present through the thickness. factor for the Kevlar-epoxy plates tested (Malvern et al, 1989)
Grady, Chamis, and Aiello (1989) used four-node isopara- are shown in Figs 31 and 32, respectively. It is seen that the
metric plate bending elements in MSC/NASTRAN to analyze stiffness remained constant until a threshold delamination size
dynamic delamination buckling under impact loading. Four plate
elements were used through the thickness of the laminates and, at
each cross section, constraints were imposed to ensure that plane
sections remain plane and that transverse shear strain was zero.
Away from the delamination. the laminate behaved as a simple
Bernoulli-Euler beam, and, in the delaminated zone, the two
sublaminates each behaved as simple beams.
Experimental studies on buckling of laminated panels with
impact-induced or artificially implanted delaminations have been
presented (Table VIII). The Shadow-Moire technique was gener-
ally used to show the extent and form of blisters in the material
due to buckling of the delaminated area, their distortion and
growth under load.

Residual flexural s t r e n g t h
Rotem (1988) studied the effect of impact damage on the bending
rigidity and flexural strength of laminated beams. Brittle speci-
mens consisted of (0/90)2,, graphite-epoxy laminates, while duc- 0 50 100 150 200 260
2,
Projected Delamination Area (mm )
FIG 31. Variation of the strength retention factor with delamination
area for Kevlar-epoxy laminates (Malvern et al, 1989).
TABLE VIII. Buckling of delaminated panels

Analytical studies Experimental studies


Bottega and Maewal (1983) Horban and Palazotto (1987)
Chai et al (1981; 1983) Jones etal (1985)
Grady et al (1989) Kassapoglou and Abbott (1988)
Jones etal (1985) Moustey(1984)
Kapania and Wolfe (1987; Palazotto etal (1989)
1989) Seifcrt and Palazotto (1987)
Kardomateas and Schmueser
(1987)
Kardomateas (1989)
Kassapoglou and Abbott (1988)
Simitses etal (1985)
Williamsetal(1986)
Yin and Fei (1984; 1985)
Yin and Wang (1984)
50 100 150 200 250
Yin (1985; 1986)
Yin etal (1986) Projected Delamination Area (mm )
Yin (1987) FIG 32. Variation of the stiffness retention factor with delamination
area for Kevlar-epoxy laminates (Malvern et al, 1989).

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184 Abrate: Laminated composite materials Appl Mech Rev vol 44, no 4, April 1991

was reached, after which the stiffness decreased linearly (Fig 31). 140 -

For small delamination areas, a large drop in strength was ob-


served and then followed by a linear decrease with increasing 120 -
delamination area (Fig 31). Similar trends were observed for
graphite-epoxy laminates; but, in this case, scatter in the data was 100 -
large, and the correlation between loss of strength and loss of
stiffness was more difficult to detect. These results are in agree-
ment with those reported by Rotem (1988).
Dorey et al (1978) studied the flexural strength of laminates 60
with carbon fiber (CFRP), Kevlar fiber (KRP), and hybrid rein-
I :
forcement. Kevlar fibers have a much higher strain energy to rH 40^
failure than carbon fibers, and it is thought that hybrids of car-
bon and Kevlar fiber reinforcement will have higher impact re-
sistance. All specimens tested consisted of 12 plies with a P3 ~
|(), 90, 0, 45, - 4 5 . 01., lay-up. The K/C/K specimens consisted of i 1 1 1 1 1
0

2 layers of KRP/8 layers of CFRP/2 layers of KRP, and the 0 0.2 0.4 06 0.8 1
C/K/C/K/C had 3 layers of CFRP/2 layers of KRP/2 layers of
S = a/L
CFRP/2 layers of KRP/3 layers of CFRP. Specimen size was
FIG 33. Effect of delaminations on the first three natural frequencies
60 x 25 mm, and each lamina had a 0.15 mm thickness. Impact
of a clamped-clamped beam (Wang et al, 1982).
was produced by the impact of a 6 mm steel ball with kinetic
energies of up to 18 J capable of complete penetration and also
using a drop-weight tester. CFRP showed a minimum residual
flexural strength for 2 J impact energies, where the impact itself the effect of delaminations on the natural frequencies and mode
caused total failure. For higher impact energy levels, total pene- shapes of laminated beams. Delaminations create two sublam-
tration resulted in less severe damage. FRP specimens showed a inates which are modelled as beams subjected to bending and
4 J threshold for the apparition of damage and a minimum resid- axial deformations. For a fixed-fixed beam, Fig 33 shows the
ual strength for 6 J. The C/K/C/K/C showed a lower threshold variation of the first three natural frequencies, defined as
value than the CFRP specimens and poor performance over the
entire range of the tests. The K/C/K specimens showed higher Q,2 = (pAL4/El)w2i, i = 1, 2 , . .. , (165)
residual strength over the entire range. Residual flexural strength where pA, L, and EI are the mass/unit length, length, and bending
was dependent on the integrity of the outer layers, and it was rigidities of the undamaged beam, as a function of delamination
shown that the K/C/K specimen achieved a good compromise, size. In the model, the upper and lower portions of the delami-
since the threshold energy for impact damage was increased up to nated area were taken as beams subjected to both axial and
four times that for CFRP, fracture energies were twice those for bending deformations, whereas the undamaged portions were
CFRP, and residual strength after impact was better than for modeled as beams subjected to bending only. Neglecting axial
CFRP, whereas the static mechanical properties were at least deformation in the sublaminates as in Ramkumar et al (1979) is
80% of those for CFRP. inappropriate. The vibration of a delaminated beam-plate relative
to buckled states was studied by Yin and Jane (1988).
The effect of impact induced damage on the free vibration
Residual s h e a r s t r e n g t h
characteristics of laminated plates was investigated experimen-
Dorey et al (1978) also studied the residual shear strength after tally by Tracy et al (1984), Grady (1988), and Peroni et al (1989).
impact of CFRP, KRP, and hybrid laminates. For the same lami- Grady and Meyn (1989) described an experimental procedure to
nates used in their study of residual flexural strength, 30 x 25 mm determine impact induced delaminations in laminated compos-
specimens were subjected to short beam shear tests. Linear elastic ites using vibration tests. Changes in natural frequencies and
fracture mechanics predicted that the critical shear stress x for a damping ratios were related to delamination length. Balis-Crema
large sheet of brittle material subjected to a uniform shear stress et al (1985) used modal analysis to detect damage in composite
is given by plates and in a small windpower turbine blade. All these investi-
gations aimed at detecting the presence of damage indicate that
K,• = x(7w)"2, (163) changes in natural frequencies are small and require a very high
where 7a is the crack length and Kc a critical stress intensity frequency resolution.
factor. It was further assumed that a is proportional to the square A technique designed to pinpoint the location of structural
root of the delaminated area, which implies that the residual shear defects was developed by Cawley and Adams (1979a,b) and
strength is proportional to successfully applied to the detection of localized damage induced
by impact, heat, holes, and saw cuts in laminated plates and
x « KC(AT"\ (164)
sandwich panels.
Plots of residual shear strength versus A showed a linear relation-
ship. Other investigators have presented experimental results on
flexural and shear rigidity after impact. HYPERVELOCITY IMPACT

Spacecraft designers have to contend with the consequences of


Effect of i m p a c t on free vibration of laminated b e a m s
impact by meteorites or man-made debris. A recent review article
The post-impact behavior of a structure can also be characterized on hypervelocity impact (Cours-Palais, 1987) indicated that the
by changes in natural frequencies and mode shapes. Wang et al study of hypervelocity impact on composites was started only
(1982) presented an analytical approach for studying the vibra- very recently by NASA. This research is concerned with experi-
tions of split beams. This is a model problem for understanding mental and analytical description of crater formation and delam-

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Appl Mecti Rev vol 44, no 4, April 1991 Abrate: Laminated composite materials 185

ination with projectiles between 0.2 and 32 mm in diameter at dynamic response to a given input (a step function in time, for
impact velocities between 3.5 and 9 km/s. A description of a example); the response will then be used in a separate analysis to
space debris simulation facility, including a light gas gun, located determine the time history of the contact force.
at the Marshall Space Flight Center, is given by Taylor (1987). Contact between a rigid spherical indentor and a composite
Yew and Kendrick (1987) used the light gas gun facility at the laminate follows Hertz's law during loading, but permanent in-
Johnson Space Center for testing of graphite-epoxy composites dentations are present, and a different behavior is observed dur-
subjected to hypervelocity impacts. Projectiles made of nylon ing unloading and subsequent reloading. Sun and co-workers
(L= 1.828 mm, R = 0.87 mm, p = 1140 kg/nr) or aluminum presented experimental results and simple indentation laws that
(L = R = 0.87 mm, p = 2712 kg/rrr) were launched at velocities are now widely used for impact analysis. Internal wave motion is
ranging from 3 to 7.5 km/s. The dimensions of the test plates were negligible with small spherical impactors but must be accounted
selected so that the perforation process was completed before the for with long cylindrical bar and other impactor types.
arrival of waves reflected from the boundaries. Several Techniques employed to locate impact damage, determine its
quasiisotropic lay-ups with 16, 32, 48, and 96 plies and thick- size, and the through-the-thickness distribution have been dis-
nesses of 2.54, 4.83, 6.6, and 17 mm, respectively, were tested. cussed. Ultrasonic techniques are used more widely, and new
During impact, powdery particles approximately 0.02 mm in improvements make it possible to obtain accurate maps of delam-
diameter and flakes of lengths from 1 to 50 mm were shattered inations at each interface. New nondestructive approaches are
from the plate. Mass spectrum analysis of the powdery particles also being developed for more efficient inspection of actual struc-
showed a small amount of aluminum, suggesting that the alumi- tures. Direct observation of the initiation and growth of impact
num projectile might have been liquefied and adhered to the induced delaminations was possible for two special cases, one
composite material particles. Surface damage consisted of a cra- when the specimen transmits light (glass-epoxy, Revlar-epoxy),
ter on the front surface and very extensive peeling to both front the other when the specimen is subjected to an initial in-plane
and back surfaces. Only the 96-ply specimen was not completely compressive load which will cause local buckling in the delami-
perforated. Peelings were in the direction of the fibers and in- nated zone.
volved only the first surface ply; the surface area of the craters Examination of specimens after low velocity impact indicates
was plotted as a function of impact energy. Internal damage was that delamination represents a major component of damage and
assessed using ultrasonic C-scan and microscopic examination of develops according to a definite pattern. Delamination occurs
dye-treated specimen sections. Thin plates (16 lamina) were lo- only at the interface between plies with different fiber orienta-
cally shattered by impact with no crater formation and relatively tions, never between plies with the same fiber orientation. When
small delamination area and were too thin to show spallation delamination occurs, the debonded area generally has an oblong
damage. For 48-lamina plates there was a clearly defined crater at or "peanut" shape with its major axis oriented in the direction of
the impact side of the plate, and spallation by reflected waves at the fibers in the lower ply at that interface. The projected delam-
the back surface were also visible on the micrographs. These two ination area, as observed on conventional C-scans, increases lin-
damaged zones were then joined by a small tunnel which corre- early with the kinetic energy of the impactor after a certain
sponded to a "shear-plugging" mechanism with the "plugged- threshold value has been reached. The effect of specimen thick-
out" materia! being ejected from the back of the plate along with ness can be eliminated when the total delamination area, that is,
the spalled fragments. For very thick plates, a crater formed on the sum of the delamination area on each interface, is considered.
the impacted face, but due to the longer traveling distance, the For similar specimens and energy levels, two systematic studies
strength of the compressive wave was reduced when reaching the indicated that a small mass with high initial velocity excited only
free surface. The strength of the reflected tensile wave would not a local response in the target beam, whereas a heavier impactor
be sufficient to create spallations, and damage would be limited with lower initial velocity produced global beam deflections.
to delamination and matrix cracking. Therefore, damage in high velocity impact was essentially inde-
pendent of specimen length, whereas a linear' variation with span
length was observed for low velocity impacts. For the same initial
CONCLUSION kinetic energy level, damage size is also larger for a heavy impac-
tor with low initial velocity than for a smaller mass with higher
Various systems are used to generate impact, and techniques initial velocity.
employed to measure contact force and impactor velocity prior to Difficulties associated with predictions of impact damage,
and during contact were reviewed. Many theoretical models have particularly delamination, are due to the complexity of stress
been used to analyze impact dynamics. The impact force history distribution in the contact zone and the lack of reliable failure
to be predicted is necessary for the interpretation of experimental criteria and experimental data for predicting the onset of damage
results and also serves as input for detailed analyses of the region and the behavior of the structure after initial failure. Empirical
surrounding the contact zone in order to determine failure analy- methods to predict delamination size are available in certain
sis. Several types of models were developed to account for the cases. Experimental results concerning the residual strength of
behavior of the structure, the impactor, and the local deformation laminates in tension, compression bending, and shear are avail-
of the contact zone. For low impact velocities, the structure be- able. In general, the strength of the laminate remains unaffected
haves quasistatically, and its rigidity at the impact point can be until the impact velocity reaches a threshold value, after which a
represented by an assemblage of springs accounting for bending, rapid drop in residual properties is observed. As impact velocity
transverse shear deformation, and membrane deformations due to is increased, residual strength reaches an asymptotic value as the
large displacements. For higher velocity impacts where the dy- damage type changes from one in which extensive delaminations
namics of the structure itself are important, modal analysis is used and matrix cracking are produced to one in which a clean hole is
in analytical studies and finite element models with direct time produced by shearing of the reinforcing fibers. The limiting value
integration procedures are also employed successfully. When the for the residual strength of the laminate in tension is that of a plate
structure itself behaves linearly, the structural problem and im- with a hole of a diameter equal to that of the impactor. The
pact problem can be uncoupled so that an existing finite element residual strength of a laminate after impact damage can be deter-
code or an existing analytical solution can be used to determine mined by considering that impact damage causes the same

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186 Abrate: Laminated composite materials Appl Mech Rev vol 44, no 4, April 1991

strength reduction as a circular hole or slit with a diameter or Cantwell WJ (1988b), The. influence of the fibre stacking sequence on the high
velocity impact response of CFRP, J Mat Sci Lett 7(7), 756-758.
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Serge Abrate is Assistant Pro-


fessor of Aerospace Engineering
in the Department ofMechanical
and Aerospace Engineering and
Engineering Mechanics at the
University of Missouri-Rolla, He
received his Dipl6me d'Inghlieur
(1976) from the Ecole Nationale
Superieure d' Arts et Metiers in
Paris and an MS in Mechanical
Engineering (1980) and a PhD
in Aeronautics and Astronautics
(1983), both from Purdue Uni-
versity, His research interests include structural dynamics, com-
posite materials, and optimal design. He has published over 20
papers dealing with structural dynamics, noise, vibration, and
design of structures made of composite materials. He is a mem-
ber of the ASEE and an associate member of the ASME.

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