Effect of the laminate thickness on the composite strength to repeated low energy impacts

The influence of laminate thickness on the resistance to repeated low energy impacts of glass, carbon and aramid fabrics reinforced composites, was evaluated for two levels of energy of impact. The results obtained show that below a certain energy level the cross section of the laminate is the most relevant variable that determines the impact resistance. Under these conditions the experimental points of all tested laminates fall on a single curve, irrespective of the reinforcing fiber used. When the energy level of the impactor is increased, fiber characteristics became relevant. The glass fabric reinforced composite showed the steepest increase on the impact resistance with increasing laminate thickness. This behavior was attributed primarily to the higher areal coverage of the glass fabric used. The isotropic behavior of glass fibers in relation to the anisotropic character of aramid and carbon fibers was also of relevance. A quadratic equation was shown to provide a best fit to the experimental points, and the coefficient of the quadratic term was shown to reflect the increase of the impact resistance with laminate thickness.

[1]  W. Kowbel,et al.  Impact behavior and impact-fatigue testing of polymer composites , 1992 .

[2]  G. Zhou,et al.  The use of experimentally-determined impact force as a damage measure in impact damage resistance and tolerance of composite structures , 1998 .

[3]  E. Gellert,et al.  Energy transfer in ballistic perforation of fibre reinforced composites , 1998 .

[4]  D. Carr.  Failure Mechanisms of Yarns Subjected to Ballistic Impact , 1999 .

[5]  B. Lee,et al.  Penetration Failure Mechanisms of Armor-Grade Fiber Composites under Impact , 2001 .

[6]  Paul J. Hogg,et al.  The role of reinforcement architecture on impact damage mechanisms and post-impact compression behaviour , 1996, Journal of Materials Science.

[7]  S. Paciornik,et al.  Analysis of the mechanical behavior and characterization of pultruded glass fiber–resin matrix composites , 2003 .

[8]  Ramazan Karakuzu,et al.  The response of laminated composite plates under low-velocity impact loading , 2003 .

[9]  A. Bunsell.  The tensile and fatigue behaviour of Kevlar-49 (PRD-49) fibre , 1975 .

[10]  Ling-Chen Chang,et al.  Loading Rate Effect on Woven Glass Laminated Plates by Penetration Force , 1998 .

[11]  S. Abrate.  Impact on Laminated Composite Materials , 1991 .

[12]  H. M. Wen,et al.  Penetration and perforation of thick FRP laminates , 2001 .

[13]  Fu-Kuo Chang,et al.  A Model for Predicting Damage in Graphite/Epoxy Laminated Composites Resulting from Low-Velocity Point Impact , 1992 .

[14]  Andreas P. Christoforou,et al.  Impact dynamics and damage in composite structures , 2001 .

[15]  James H. Starnes,et al.  Low-Speed Impact Damage-Initiation Characteristics of Selected Laminated Composite Plates , 1995 .

[16]  G. Zhou,et al.  Damage mechanisms in composite laminates impacted by a flat-ended impactor , 1995 .

[17]  Stephen R Hallett,et al.  Prediction of impact damage in composite plates , 2000 .

[18]  Donald F. Adams,et al.  An analysis of the impact behavior of hybrid composite materials , 1975 .

[19]  Tobey M. Cordell,et al.  On Low-Velocity Impact Testing of Composite Materials , 1988 .

[20]  Dahsin Liu,et al.  Impact-Induced Delamination—A View of Bending Stiffness Mismatching , 1988 .

[21]  John Morton,et al.  The impact resistance of composite materials — a review , 1991 .

[22]  Stephen R Reid,et al.  Impact behaviour of fibre-reinforced composite materials and structures , 2000 .

[23]  S. Paciornik,et al.  Evaluation of the damaged area of glass-fiber-reinforced epoxy-matrix composite materials submitted to ballistic impacts , 2004 .

[24]  L. Svensson,et al.  Carbon, polyethylene and PBO hybrid fibre composites for structural lightweight armour , 2002 .

[25]  Robin Olsson,et al.  Closed form prediction of peak load and delamination onset under small mass impact , 2003 .

[26]  J. L. Perry,et al.  Instrumented Charpy impact tests of several unidirectional composite materials , 1975 .

[27]  S. Monteiro,et al.  Evaluation of repeated low energy impact damage in carbon–epoxy composite materials , 2005 .

[28]  S. Tsai,et al.  Introduction to composite materials , 1980 .

[29]  J. Jang,et al.  Effect of laminate geometry on impact performance of aramid fiber/polyethylene fiber hybrid composites , 2000 .