Low velocity impact of carbon fiber aluminum laminates

This paper investigates the low velocity impact behavior of the carbon fiber aluminum laminates (CARALL). The purpose of the research is to study the applicability of carbon fiber in FMLs and the effect of the properties of aluminum alloy on the low velocity impact response of CARALL. A user-defined material subroutine (VUMAT) is used to define Hashin’s 3D damage constitutive model of composite. The numerical simulations using the progressive damage model have a good agreement with the test results of Glare in the impact incident. Simulation results reveal that CARALL represents the better impact resistance property than Glare due to the high strength and stiffness carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP). The numerical simulations using the proposed damage model successfully predict the impact mechanical behavior of CARALL. In addition, finite element models are developed to investigate the effect of the impact resistant of CARALL panels with different aluminum alloys, namely 1060-O, 2024-T3, 6061-T6 and 7075-T6. It is shown that the impact resistance of CARALL is improved by increasing the yield strength of aluminum alloy.