Dynamics and fracture of impacted sandwich composites under time varying loads: Numerical modelling and simulations

Abstract

In this study, the dynamics and fracture of sandwich plates containing a pre-existing skin-to-core interfacial damage and subinterfacial core damage induced by an incident impact is examined. The dynamic response of sandwich plates with debonding that is allowed to be growing with a time, is simulated by using the finite element method within the ABAQUS code. The forced vibration analysis of impact-damaged sandwich plates is carried out accounting for contact and friction conditions within the debonded region in the simulations with ABAQUS. The damage mechanics approach implemented into ABAQUS via cohesive elements is used for modelling the debonding propagation under impulsive and harmonic loading. The influence of the skin-to-core debonding growth on the global nonlinear dynamics and strength of the sandwich plates is studied in detail.