Intralaminar Fracture Calibration of Fabric Material Card for Non-Local Damage Crash Modelling

Crashworthiness refers to a structure’s ability to absorb and dissipate impact energy through controlled deformation, thereby enhancing protection of vehicle occupants and onboard equipment. Composite materials possess significant potential in crashworthy airborne and ground vehicle structures due to their favourable specific energy absorption. However, their performance depends on several design factors such as materials, stacking sequences, and geometry. To reduce development costs and time to market, numerical simulations have become a necessary tool for optimising these factors. A challenge in this approach is the calibration of models, which is decisive for ensuring reliable and predictive simulations. Among other approaches, Non-local Damage Models have demonstrated reliability in simulating crashworthy composite structures. This work presents the intralaminar fracture energy calibration of fabric ply within a Waas–Pineda model, as implemented in ESI Virtual Performance Solutions, using Compact Tension and Compact Compression tests.