Determination of impact events on a plate-like composite structure

Abstract

ABSTRACTComposite materials have been increasingly used in aircraft structures. However, these composite structures are susceptible to damage from external low-velocity impacts. In this paper, an impact identification algorithm is proposed to estimate the impact location and force time history simultaneously. A localisation method based on basis vectors is proposed, and the impact force time history is reconstructed by simplified transfer functions. The basis vector stands for the relationship between the impact location and the sensor signals, and the transfer function shows the relationship of the sensor signal and the force time history. An experiment is conducted on a flat glass fibre-epoxy matrix composite plate to verify the developed algorithm using only four sensors. The soft impactor and hard impactor are two typical impactors for impact events; therefore, the impact experiment is performed by the rubber and the steel impactors, respectively. The experimental results indicate that the proposed algorithm is feasible for the identification of impact events on plate-like composite structures.