Modelling and simulating of the compressive behavior of T-stiffened composite panels subjected to stiffener impact

In this paper, an equivalent damage model was proposed to predict the compressive behavior of three T-stiffened composite panels subjected to low velocity stiffener impact. A softening inclusion model combined with the reduction of material properties was used to describe the impacted stiffener damage. The progressive damage of the impacted stiffener and the failure of the panels under compression were simulated within the finite element software package ABAQUS. Compression-After-Impact (CAI) numerical results show that the compressive buckling modes of the stiffened panels are influenced by the damage degree of the impacted stiffener, and the fracture of the impacted stiffener triggers the global buckling of the panel. The buckling and failure loads of the panels predicted by this paper are in good agreement with the experimental results, which proves the validity of the model.