Numerical Analysis of Composite Beams under Impact by a Rigid Particle

Analysis of a laminated composite beam under impact by a rigid particle is investigated. The importance of this project is to simulate the impact of objects on small scale aerial structures. The stresses are considered uni- axial bending with no torsion loading. The first order shear deformation theory is used to simulate the beam. After obtaining kinematic and potential energy for a laminated composite beam, the motion equations, boundary conditions and initial conditions are obtained by using Hamilton’s principle. The deformation of beam is considered large so these equations are nonlinear. Then by using the numerical methods such as generalize differential quadrature (GDQ) and Newmark methods, the equations will be converted in to a set of nonlinear algebraic equations. These nonlinear equations are solved by numerical methods such as Newton- Raphson. By solving the equations, the displacement of beam and rotation of cross section in terms of time for different number of points of beam for variety of orientation angle of layers are obtained. Then the displacements of impacted point of beam, stresses and contact forces in different times for variety of orientation of layers for different situations of impact are compared.