A multiple particle impact model for prediction of erosion in carbon-fiber reinforced composites

Material loss and degradation due to erosion remains a major concern in engineering applications for composite materials. A finite element based model has been developed to predict the erosion behavior of unidirectional carbon fiber-epoxy (CFRP) composites subjected to solid particle impacts. In this model, the CFRP plate is subjected to multiple particle impacts at a velocity of 45 m/s, with steel balls as the erodent particles. The Influence of impact angle, erodent particle stream orientation (parallel and transverse to the fiber direction) and erodent particle size has been studied by varying the impact angle from 15⁰-90⁰ and particle sizes considered are of radii 150 µm, 200 µm and 250 µm. The model captures the influence of the erodent particle to particle impacts and the target surface properties by defining two new ratios, kinetic energy ratio, “ηk” and substrate surface property ratio, “ηs”. The cumulative eroded mass predictions are higher for transverse to fiber impact as compared to parallel to fiber impacts. It is also observed that as the erodent size increases the total eroded mass loss increases at all impact angles. The eroded mass predictions obtained from the numerical model compare favorably with the eroded mass results obtained from experimental data reported in the literature.