Numerical simulation of high velocity impact of composite T-joint by hailstone

This paper was dedicated to developing a numerical model which could predict the delamination of composite T-joint structures caused by high velocity impact of hailstone. Experiments of hailstone impact and subsequent numerical analyses were performed to study the performance of composite T-joints under hailstone impact. The smooth particle hydrodynamic (SPH) approach and the cohesive zone model (CZM) were both employed in numerical simulations to predict the delamination of composite T-joints, and the numerical results show good agreement with that of experiments such as delamination size and displacement of the composite T-joints. In addition, based on the numerical simulation, the influence of calculation parameters on the damages of the T-joints were investigated, and the results show that the velocity, the dimension and the impact angle of hailstone had great influence on the damage of the composite T-joint structures. The numerical simulation show an approximately linear relationship between the impact energy and the delamination size. The peak force of impact and the delamination size increase with the increase of the impact angle.