Numerical and experimental investigation on hail impact on composite panels

Hailstone impact on composite structures may result in severe damages while aircrafts are flying. Therefore, it is necessary to investigate the damages due to high-velocity hailstone impact on composite laminates. In the present work, a three-dimensional digital image correlation (3D-DIC) method was employed to measure the deformation field of the aluminum alloy plate under hailstone impact. By comparing the results of experiments and simulations, the hailstone constitutive parameters were validated. With the validated hailstone constitutive model, the influences of composite layup, type of reinforced fiber and matrix, impact velocity as well as initial angle of impact on the damage evolution of composite laminates were numerically investigated.