Experimental analysis and prediction of CFRP delamination caused by ice impact

Abstract

The delamination of Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer (CFRP) laminates under ice impact is a common damage feature, and it intensely threatens engineering application. However, the delamination mechanism and the prediction are extremely challenging to clarify, due to the complexity of the dynamic response of anisotropic CFRP laminates under ice impact. In this study, systematic experimental studies of CFRP laminates impacted by ice balls and C-scan non-destructive detection are performed to elucidate the delamination mechanism. To this end, multiple CFRP laminates of different thicknesses (2.4 mm and 3.6 mm) are manufactured, and then impacted by ice balls of different diameters (30 mm and 50 mm) using a gas gun system, where the ice balls are frozen with distilled water and the impact velocities vary from 46 m/s to 152 m/s. At last, a non-consistent deformation mechanism of CFRP delamination is proposed to explain the mesoscopic delamination behaviors via dynamic deformation analysis of CFRP laminates, and it is validated by the experimental results. Furthermore, the delamination prediction of CFRP laminates is obtained using the non-consistent deformation mechanism and a corresponding prediction model. This study can contribute to understand and efficiently predict the delamination of CFRP laminates under low-energy ice impact.