Determining effects of impact loading on residual strength of fiber-metal laminates with grid-characteristic numerical method

The Grid-Characteristic numerical Method (GCM) that is quite common in solving aero and hydrodynamic problems can also be applied for mechanics of solids. It allows to implement complex border and contact conditions, including the non-reflecting border and the destructible contact. Both this conditions are very important for the precise and effective modeling of Low-Velocity Impacts (LVI) on fiber and Fiber-Metal Laminates (FML) and the resulting Barely Visible Impact Damage (BVID) that influences the residual strength of a composite aircraft part. BVID is the type of damage that is not visible by the naked eye and can be hardly detected by a standard ultrasound equipment that is used for regular maintenance. It can appear during any weak impacts like bird strike or hail. Determining its influence on the residual strength of the part is very important to define the priorities of development of ultrasound diagnostics. In this paper, the GCM was applied for a full cycle of loading of an FML aircraft cover part. The FML consisted of a Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer (CFRP) and a single titanium layer on the upper surface. The cycle of loading in a single calculation consisted of an LVI caused by a small striker and a comparatively slow compressive in-plane loading. Three-dimensional patterns of velocity and stress distributions over the time of calculation are given. Destruction patterns, obtained via the Hashin failure criterion are given and analyzed.