Visualization and interpretation of the impact failure behavior of textile composites using a highly efficient Meso-FE model

A highly efficient meso-scale finite element (meso-FE) model was developed to enable the damage and failure prediction of a two-dimensional triaxially braided composite (2DTBC) panel that was subjected to impact loading. Considering the huge computational cost of meso-FE model in impact simulation, a modified modeling strategy, integrating proper meshing verification and parameter correlation, was proposed. The modified meso-FE model reduces the computational time by 96.8% in quasi-static simulations. Ductile failure and progressive damage models were introduced to enable impact failure simulation, together with deformation-gradient based element deletions rules. The meso-FE model was validated based on experimental results to further implement in the impact simulation of the large-scale 2DTBC panel. Impact damage distributions were obtained by extracting damage contour maps for different failure modes. The proposed model shows excellent correlation with the experimental results, not only capturing the global strain responses but also capturing the main failure behavior of the 2DTBC under high-speed impact.