Simulation of wind-blown sand erosion damage of CFRP laminate based on discrete element method

Abstract

To investigate the wind-blown sand erosion resistance of Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer (CFRP) laminates, this study conducted simulated wind-blown sand erosion experiments using erosion velocity as a variable and tested the mechanical properties of the materials after erosion. Meanwhile, Furthermore, a VUMAT subroutine integrating the Discrete Element Method (DEM) with the 3D-Hashin criterion was developed in ABAQUS. This approach aims to establish a quantitative relationship between stochastic multi-particle erosion and the anisotropic micro-damage of CFRP laminate, thereby overcoming the limitations of traditional methods in quantifying erosion mechanisms. The model was first validated for accuracy using experimental results obtained at different erosion velocities. Subsequently, to further examine the model’s generalizability and prediction accuracy, supplementary experiments under different sand flow rates were conducted, and the simulation results were compared with the measured data. The results indicate that during the validation phase (different erosion velocities), the relative errors between the simulated and experimental values for the tensile strength and elastic modulus of CFRP laminate were 1.37%–4.18% and 3.56%–6.48%, respectively; whereas during the prediction validation phase (different sand flow rates), these relative error ranges were 0.83%–6.53% and 0.44%–1.4%, respectively. These results not only validate the model’s accuracy but also demonstrate its robust predictive potential for untested scenarios. The model can reliably simulate the mechanical degradation and damage evolution of CFRP laminate under real-world wind-blown sand environments, thereby providing an effective numerical tool for the durability assessment of CFRP structures.