Modeling and Analysis of Low Velocity Impact Damage in Carbon Fiber Laminates

ABSTRACT Composite materials, renowned for their high strength‐to‐weight ratio, are crucial in applications that require durability and reduced weight, such as aircraft structures, wind turbine blades, and automotive components. Their tailored properties enable innovations in design and functionality across various engineering and manufacturing sectors. This paper reports on a comprehensive investigation of composite structures subjected to impact loading of energies (7, 14, and 24 J). Different laminate thicknesses (2.4, 3.2, and 4.0 mm) and ply orientations ([0/0] s , [0/90] s , and [45/0/−45/90] s ) are taken into consideration in this study. Under set boundary conditions, the simulation is conducted using the Abaqus/computer aided engineering (CAE) finite element (FE) model. The influence of contact force, deformation, internal energy, and damage on the plate with varying impact energies of 7, 14, and 24 J is examined. It has been noted that as the impact velocity and carbon fiber (CF) laminate thickness increase, the influence of contact force also increases. Additionally, the model is used to ascertain how the contact bodies will react to the impact event, and the coefficient of restitution (CoR) can be used to calculate impact‐related energy loss percentage (ELP). Artificial neural networks (ANNs) were employed to predict the CoR and ELP, yielding highly accurate results and demonstrating the network's ability to capture complex data patterns.