Abstract
This study investigates the impact performance, post-impact bending behavior and damage mechanisms of Divinycell H-100 foam core with woven carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) face sheets sandwich panel in cold temperature Arctic conditions. Low-velocity impact tests were performed at 23, −30 and −70 °C. Results indicate that exposure to low temperature reduces impact damage tolerance significantly. X-ray microcomputed tomography is utilized to reveal damage modes such as matrix cracking, delamination and fiber breakage on the CFRP face sheet, as well as core crushing, core shearing and debonding in the Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) foam core. Post-impact bending tests reveal that residual flexural properties are more sensitive to the in-plane compressive property of the CFRP face sheet than the tensile property. Specifically, the degradation of flexural strength strongly depends on pre-existing impact damage and temperature conditions. Statistical analyses based on this study are employed to show that flexural performance is dominantly governed by face sheet thickness and pre-bending impact energy.
Highlights
Reduction in Arctic sea ice in the region over the last three decades has opened more efficient sailing routes [1]
The force-displacement curves showed linear behavior up to a certain point whereby sudden load drop indicated the failure of the front carbon fiber/epoxy composite face sheet (Figure 3a–c), except in a thick specimen impacted with low and insufficient impact energy of 4 J (Figure 3d), in which significant recovery happened along the displacement axis due to rebound of the impactor
As the temperature decreased the force required for front face sheet penetration decreased for both thick and thin specimens due to the increased brittleness of the carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) face sheet
Summary
Reduction in Arctic sea ice in the region over the last three decades has opened more efficient sailing routes [1]. New seaways through the Northern route have resulted in the increased deployment of marine and naval vessels in extreme low-temperature Arctic conditions. This requires advanced materials to combat the fundamental challenges associated with operating in such a cold and harsh environment. Raju et al [4] and Xue et al [5] studied how the thickness of a honeycomb core affected the impact tolerance of sandwich panels. Atas and Potoglu [6] and James et al [7] examined how the carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) thickness improved low-velocity impact resistance composite structures, and confirmed that improvement to impact damage can be made by using a thicker core and face sheet. A constitutive model was proposed to understand the failure features and strain rate dependency of composite structures by Long et al [12]
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