On Impact Damage of Composite Shells by a Low-Velocity Projectile

This paper investigates the impact-induced damage initiation and propagation in laminated composite shell under low-velocity impact. A three-dimensional eight-node nonconforming element with Taylor’s modification scheme is described to analyze interlaminar stress distribution and damage propagation. The damage analysis is performed by using the Tsai-Wu quadratic failure criterion, Tsai’s damage modes and an additional delamination formula at all...