Low Velocity Impact Evaluation of Self-Healing Sandwich Structures

Abstract

One of the main problems within aeronautical industries is the collision, in low-flight, take-off and landing, between the fuselage of the aircraft and birds. This occurrence results in irreversible damage and consequent repairs of the composite material that composes the aircraft structure. The focus of this work is to find a solution that drastically reduces the lack of residual impact strength of composite materials, combining laminates of hybrid fibre fabrics from carbon with Dyneema® with a self-healing elastomeric adhesive Reverlink™ in a composite sandwich with a honeycomb core. Comparison is undertaken with a more traditional approach that considers the epoxy Araldite® 2015 adhesive instead. Low-velocity impact tests were made, and the experimental results enabled the comparison of both solutions. The test trials showed an improved impact behaviour of the Reverlink™ solution and regeneration after the first impact. Thus, the proposed solution can be considered instead of traditional sandwich joining with epoxy adhesives.