Experimental Analysis for the Effect of Impactor Geometry on Carbon Reinforced Composite Materials

Abstract

For the last three decades, composites have become very preferable materials to be used in the automotive industry, structural parts of aircraft and military systems and spacecraft, due to their high strength and modulus. Composite materials are sometimes exposed to invisible or visible damage due to impact loading during their service life. In this study, the effect of impactor geometry with four different contact surfaces on woven carbon fibre-reinforced composite plates having three different thicknesses are investigated. In the first stage, composite plates were manufactured with the ply orientations of [45/-45/0/90/45/-45]2s, [45/-45/0/90/45/-45]3s, [45/-45/0/90/45/-45]4s based on conventional usage. In the second stage, carbon fibre-reinforced composite test panels were exposed to low velocity impact tests to obtain force-time, energy-time and force-displacement curves. Finally, semi and full penetration of composite panels and damage magnitude were determined. It was found that the impactor geometries with lower contact surfaces such as conical and ogive types were much more penetrative on composite plates than the other geometries, but they caused larger damage area in the vicinity of the impact point.