LAUSR

Abstract A new numerical method for the waves-damage interaction and the post-failure response analysis of laminated composite beams under an impact load is presented in this paper. The studied structure is made of E-glass/epoxy and it is decomposed in undamaged and damaged substructures. The material properties in the damaged substructure are modified according to sudden material property degradation rule. The damage describes the creation of micro-discontinuities in the structure during the loading. The enhanced formulation considered in this paper can be used to target this problem. The numerical method combines the Finite Element (FE) method to model the discontinuous regions, impact region and damaged region, and the wave finite element (WFE) to accurately model the periodic substructures (intact substructures). This hybrid method enables the calculation of the waves-damage interaction scattering coefficients and the response of the whole structure in both the frequency as well as in the time domain and it provides the reduction of the computational cost of analyses in space and time. Several numerical simulations have been performed, first to validate the accuracy of the results predicted by the proposed formulation and second to investigate the damage effect on the dynamic behaviour of the structure.