Explicit Stacked-Shell Modelling of Aged Basalt Fiber Reinforced Composites to Low-Velocity Impact

Basalt, as a fiber for reinforcing polymeric composites, is progressively emerging as an alternative to glass, given their comparable mechanical properties and the growing environmental awareness for eco-friendlier solutions in structural engineering. Given the mechanical properties variations that polymers may present depending on the application they are subjected to, experimental results are generally conducted to allow a cost-effective dimensioning of composite structures. As an alternative to these resource and time-costly experimental routines, numerical simulations have become a viable tool to predict the behavior of laminates. However, there might be a technical barrier when dealing with dynamic boundary conditions and explicit codes given the inherently intricate numerical model setups. Hence, the present study describes the calibration of essential constitutive parameters for the creation of a stacked-shell virtual laminate that faithfully reproduces the response of a cross-ply balanced basalt thermoset laminate to low-velocity impact (LVI) in a simplistic and computationally-cheap manner, validating its outcome with experiments. Knowing that most composites must be designed to endure certain environmental variations, the numerical model reproduced the behavior of the composite after accelerated ageing by high temperature and moisture exposure. The accuracy of the numerical output hereby presented was checked by a high correlation coefficient of over 97% and 94% for the force vs. time and force vs. displacement experimental curves, respectively. Furthermore, the final values of the constitutive parameters after calibration pointed out to a predominantly tensile failure in the matrix, which was corroborated by a Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) analysis.