Numerical Study of CFRP Composites Subjected to Hail Ice Impact

The integrity of aircraft structures, including forward sections and leading edges of wings are prone to hail ice impact. In the current work, numerical models of hail ice and CFRP panels have been developed using nonlinear finite element code LS-DYNA. The numerical model consists of a target plate with size 300 mm×300 mm×4.65 mm which were impacted by a spherical hail ice of diameter 42.7 mm. The obtained results show good correlations with the results already published in the literature. Based on the confidence obtained, the numerical study was done with different stacking sequences ([0/45/-45/90]s and [0/45/-45/90]3s) under different impact velocities. It was observed that the inter laminar shear strain energy formed during impact is related to the failure threshold energy of the target plate. It was found that the energy absorption is higher at low impact velocities and tends to steadily decline as the impact velocity increases.