Low-velocity impact behavior of carbon woven laminates after exposure to varying temperatures

Abstract

The present study reports the low-velocity impact (LVI) performance of carbon woven reinforced polymer (CWRP) composites with varying temperatures. The fabrication of carbon woven lamina and carbon woven reinforced two-layered laminate (named CWRP-1 and CWRP-2) was done using a vacuum-assisted resin transfer molding (VARTM) process. CWRP-1 samples were tested at varying impact velocities of 1, 2, 3, and 4 m/s at −25, 25, and 50 °C for each incident velocity. CWRP-2 samples were tested at room temperature at varying incident velocities to determine the effect of multiple woven layers. The impact resistance of the first-crack load, peak impact load, and absorbed energies were recorded and evaluated under different loading conditions. In addition, the Weibull probability method is adapted to forecast failure behavior as a function of load. Visual inspection, optical microscopy, and scanning electron microscope (SEM) images were used to assess the damage pattern and failure morphologies in forecasting the failure phases during LVI. The low-velocity impact behavior of CWRP-1 at −25 °C with various velocities was shown to be random due to the polymer matrix freezing condition. The softening of the resin matrix at 50 °C is responsible for the difference in damage tolerance. The relevance of multiple layered composites for better impact resistance characteristics was demonstrated during testing of CWRP-2 at room temperature. Overall, the results of this experiment showed that CWRP lamina and laminates are highly sensitive to the impact velocities and external temperatures.