DAMAGE CHARACTERIZATION OF COMPOSITE STIFFENED PANELS UNDER IMPACT LOADING IN AIRCRAFT APPLICATION

Composite Materials have becomesa popular due to itshigh specificstrength and high stiffness to weight ratio. They found extensive applications in automobile, aerospace, defence equipment’s and other critical components. Composite plates are predominantly used as alternative materials to regular materials. In order to provide even better strength and resistance to deformation, stiffeners are attached to the composite plates thereby increasing the bending stiffness to a large extent. These stiffened panels have found principal application in aircraft wings, ship hulls and bridge decks. In this project, low velocity impact on composite plate and composite stiffened panel has been studied. Numerical models of composite plates and stiffened panels are impacted with different energies (4J, 9J, 16J) and are analysed by finite element software ABAQUS explicit and four different oblique impact angles 90◦, 60◦, 45◦and 30◦ are analysed. Different parameters such as displacement, contact force, energy absorbed were compared for both composite plates and stiffened panels. It was noted that stiffened panels offer more resistance to deformation and absorb more energy due to high stiffness.