Impact damage to 3D woven CFRP composites plates

A glass-carbon hybrid braided composite and two CFRP 3D woven composites with orthogonal weave and a layer-to-layer weave are impacted with hemispherically-tipped impactors, using a gas gun at energies up to 60 J. The damage area, as measured by ultrasonic C-scanning, increases roughly linearly with impact energy, while the peak contact force increases roughly as the square root of the impact energy. Sectioning is used to examine damage details. Although some large delaminations are observed, there are significant areas free of larger cracks, which nevertheless show damage under C-scanning, presumably due to microcracking.