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 was to develop a method capable of identifying a corrective factor that can be used to evaluate based on similarity theory the behavior of panels with the same material but with scaled geometry when subjected to low velocity impact. The field of investigation was applied based on the experimental results present in the bibliography and that refer to two flat sheets differing only in geometric scale and made by overlapping carbon/carbon unidirectional pre-impregnated epoxy 914 C-TS (6K) −5 34% sheets. Behavior outside the range of structural linearity was investigated for the scaled panels, and the theoretical predictions of the model, projected with each law of scale for each variable present in the dynamic impact process, were compared with the experimental data. A finite element model was thereby developed that validates the theory of scaling and its limits of applicability up to the limits of fracture.