Experimental and numerical study of the behavior of a Glass Fiber Reinforced Plastic plate under oblique impact.

Experimental and numerical studies on the effect of oblique impacts on the ballistic properties of GFRP were carried out. Ballistic tests of specimens using a steel sphere with a diameter of 6.35 mm were performed for inclination angles from the normal of 0, 15, 30, 45, and 60 degrees. Ballistic curves and ballistic limits for each case were obtained, and a function approximating these results was proposed. The size of the delamination area at different angles was also analyzed. The results showed that the most catastrophic failures cases of impact were impacts with angles of 0°–30°. Computational studies of impact loading during oblique impacts were carried out in LS-DYNA using the mesoscale yarn-level model (MSM). Finally, numerically obtained ballistic limits and damaged areas were compared with experimental ones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]