Simulation of the Quasi-static Crushing of a Fabric Composite Plate

Composite structures often have a higher capacity for ab-sorbing energy than their metal counterparts. The crush-ing behavior of composite materials is complex, and the inclusion of composite components in vehicles for crash protection can necessitate expensive experimental test-ing. The ability to computationally simulate the crushing response of composite structures can significantly shorten the product development cycle and reduce cost in the aerospace, automotive, and railway industries.
In this Technology Brief, we describe a methodology for modeling the crushing behavior of composite structures using Abaqus/Explicit. Very good quantitative and qualita-tive agreement between the numerical results and experi-mental data is shown, demonstrating the utility of Abaqus/Explicit for assessing the crashworthiness of composite structures and reducing the amount of costly experimental testing.