Perforation threshold energy of carbon fiber composite laminates

Two carbon fiber composite laminates, [0/90]2S and [0/+45/90/−45]S, were considered in this work to find out the perforation threshold energy to complete the perforation process and the corresponding maximum contact force. Explicit finite element commercial software, LS-DYNA, was used to predict these values. According to the simulation results, these two types of composite laminates were tested by using a vertical drop-weight testing machine. After testing, the damage condition of these specimens were observed and compared with the results from finite element analysis. The testing results indicate that the perforation threshold energy is 6 Joules for [0/90]2S and 7 Joules for [0/+45/90/−45]S, which is in good agreement with the simulation results. Also, the maximum contact force at the case of perforation threshold energy is the lowest as compared to the maximum contact forces occurring at the impact energy that is larger or less than the perforation threshold energy.