On the influence of filling level in CFRP aircraft fuel tank subjected to high velocity impacts

In this work, the process of impact that takes place in a partially filled tank is analyzed, performing a numerical simulation, in order to understand the response of the composite laminated structure. The commercial finite-element code LS-DYNA v.R7 has been used to simulate an Hydrodynamic RAM event created by a steel spherical projectile impacting a partially water-filled woven CFRP square tube using two different approaches (MM-ALE and SPH). The intralaminar and interlaminar damage have been taken into account implementing an user subroutine and by means of a cohesive interaction, respectively. Once the numerical model is validated using available experimental data, the effect of the filling level in the failure of the tank is analyzed in detail taking advantage of the information provided by the numerical model. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.