banner.jpg 115 Finite Element Modeling and Simulation of CFRP Shells Under Axial Impact Using LS-Dyna® A. Vasanthanathan1,a, P. Nagaraj2, J. Jerold John Britto1,b 1Department of Mechanical Engineering MEPCO SCHLENK Engineering College, Sivakasi, Tamilnadu, India. avasanthan@mepcoeng.ac.in bpnagaraj@mepcoeng.ac.in 2Deparment of Mechanical Engg, RAMCO Institute of Technology, Rajapalayam, Tamilnadu, India. jerold@ritrjpm.ac.in ABSTRACT

The principal objective of this paper is to describe the finite element modelling studies that are performed for the development of carbon fabric reinforced epoxy composite shell structures. Analysis of composite structures using FEA certainly needs the assistance of commercial software packages to predict the behaviour of composite structures under impact loading by the numerical simulation of the actual composite structure. The scope of the present paper is to study the dynamic response of the thin-walled carbon fabric epoxy composite shell under axial compression using Finite Element investigations. The finite element analysis for the present study is employed with the explicit finite element software LSDYNA® wherein the experimentally determined material properties of carbon fabric/epoxy composite are incorporated into the FEModel. The history of deformation for carbon fabric/epoxy composite shells under impact loading is generated using LS-PrePost®. In every impact analysis, the maximum vertical displacement at the mid node of the top shell structure and element stresses are recorded and plotted. Low velocity axial impact experiments using drop mass setup are also conducted for the validation of finite element model made with LSDYNA®.

Keywords: Thin-walled shell, CFRP, Fabric, Axial impact, Finite element analysis, LS-DYNA®.

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