Impact on Vectran/Epoxy composites: Experimental and numerical analysis

Abstract The aim of this paper is to present a plane-stress damage model based on the Classical Lamination Theory (CLT), developed for polymer fibre-based composite. The proposed numerical model utilises a damage mechanics methodology coupled with fracture mechanics to predict composite failure, particularly under quasi-static and dynamic loadings. In addition, the proposed constitutive equations consider a single secant modulus to describe its tensile and compressive modulus, as opposed to the physically proposed tier models for polymer fibres which possesses a ‘skin-core’ structure. The result of single element and coupon-level modelling showed excellent correlation with the experimental results. In addition, it was also found that the proposed numerical model showed considerable accuracy on the response of the composite under low and high velocity impact loadings.