An Investigation of the Energy-Absorption Characteristics of Thin-Walled Polymer Composite C-Channels: Experiment and Stacked Shell Simulation

Abstract

Polymer composite materials are increasingly used in civil aircraft structures. The failure mode and energy-absorption characteristics of polymer composite structures have garnered significant attention from academia and industry. For thin-walled polymer composite C-channels with layups of [0/90]3s, [45/-45]3s, and [45/90/-45/0]3, low-speed axial compression tests were performed to investigate the failure modes, failure mechanisms, and energy-absorbing characteristics. After parametric studies using [0] and [90] single-element models, stacked shell models of thin-walled composite C-channels were established using the Lavadèze single-layer damage constitutive model, Puck 2000, and Yamada Sun failure criteria. The results show that these thin-walled composite C-channels exhibit a stable progressive crushing process with a local buckling failure mode, encompassing local buckling, fiber break-age, matrix cracks, delamination, and corner cracking. The stacked shell model demonstrates reasonable agreement with the progressive crushing process of thin-walled composites, accurately capturing interlayer matrix failure and interface delamination cracking behavior. A comparison of the specific energy absorption (SEA) and mean crushing force (Fmean) between the simulation and test results yields a difference of less than 6%, indicating a strong correlation between the simulation results and the experimental energy-absorbing characteristics. It also shows that a deep understanding of the parameters is helpful for accurate numerical modeling.