VALIDITY AND APPLICABILITY OF THE SCALING EFFECTS FOR LOW VELOCITY IMPACT ON COMPOSITE PLATES

As a result of the increasing use of composite materials in engineering fields, the study of the effect of scale on impact performance is essential for the design of large-scale structures. The purpose of this study is to identify a corrective factor based on similarity theory, that can be used to evaluate the behavior of panels with the same material but with scaled geometry when subjected to low-velocity impact. The investigation is applied based on the experimental results about flat sheets differing only in geometric scale and made by pre-impregnated foils in carbon fibers held together by an epoxy resin matrix. The experimental tests are carried out by drop tower in order to determine the behavior outside the range of structural linearity, and the theoretical predictions of the model, projected with each law of scale for each variable present in the dynamic impact process, are compared with the experimental data. A finite element model is thereby developed to validate the theory of scaling and to comprehend its limitations.