Failure model analysis and simulation of laminated composite plate under hailstone impacting

A finite element model of composite structure under hailstone impacting was established, considering the fluent character of hailstone adequately. The material models and damage criterions of the hailstone and laminate composite plate were presented. The critical impacting velocity of hailstone and the damage model of composite plate were investigated by explicit finite element method using LS-DYNA. The analysis and simulation results indicate that: the damage criterions of the hailstone and composite plate given in the paper can reflect the impacting failure properly; the primary failure model of the composite plate(AS4/8552) is matrix cracking in the process of hailstone impacting; when the hailstone velocity reaches 125m/s, the fiber breakage will appear on the top surface of the composite plate, but the compressive failure never occur in the whole process.