Numerical Simulation of the Damage Characteristics of Carbon fiber-reinforced Aluminum Laminates under Hypervelocity Impact Based on the FE-SPH Adaptive Method

Carbon fiber-reinforced aluminum laminate (CARALL) is a composite material made of carbon fiber-reinforced plastics (CFRP) and aluminum plates bonded by adhesive. It is widely used in the aerospace industry because of its high strength. In this study, the damage characteristics of carbon fiber-reinforced aluminum laminates under hypervelocity impact(HVI) is investigated using the finite element smoothed-particle hydrodynamics (FE-SPH) adaptive method. Firstly, the simulations of the aluminum projectile impacting the CFRP laminate and the aluminum plate at hypervelocity are carried out based on the FE-SPH adaptive method, and the numerical results are in good agreement with the experimental results, which verifies the reliability of the numerical model of the CFRP laminate. Afterwards, the damage characteristics of CARALL under different initial physical conditions including impact velocities, bonding sequences, and projectile shapes are investigated. Numerical results obtained from the FE-SPH adaptive method indicate that CFRP laminates in carbon fiber-reinforced aluminum laminates exhibit “X” shaped penetration channels at impact velocities ranging from 3 km/s to 6 km/s. Under the same impact conditions, the bonding sequence (CARALL with Al/CFRP/Al) shows the best protection performance. The sharp nose projectile causes the most significant damage to CARALL, while the spherical projectile causes the least under hypervelocity impact.