Abstract
This research work investigates the low-velocity impact induced damage behavior and its influence on the residual flexural response of glass/epoxy composites improved with milled glass fillers. The low-velocity impact damage employing varying impact velocities (3 m/s, 3.5 m/s, and 4 m/s) was induced on baseline and filler loaded samples with different fiber orientations. The residual performance and their damage modes were characterized using post impact flexural (FAI) test and acoustic emission (AE) monitoring. In all fiber orientations, the filler modified glass/epoxy samples showed improved impact strength and stiffness properties. A substantial improvement in impact damage tolerance, especially for samples impacted at 3.5 m/s and 4 m/s was observed. The presence of filler at the interlaminar zone contributed to improved energy dissipation through filler debonding and pull-out. This further contributed in arresting the crack growth, showing reduced damaged area. The inclusion of milled fibers on glass/epoxy laminates enhanced the impact toughness and residual flexural behavior.
Highlights
The lightweight structures in the field of aerospace and defense sectors, automotive, wind turbine, and construction industries widely use fiber reinforced composites, due to their high specific stiffness/strength, property tailoring capability, improved fatigue, and corrosion resistance [1,2]
The low velocity impact occurs for example during maintenance by tool drop by runway debris which is difficult to detect as impact damage is not so visible as opposed to high velocity impact damage
This study aims to investigate the influence of milled fibers hybridization on the low velocity impact resistance and post-impact flexural properties of the glass/epoxy laminates
Summary
The lightweight structures in the field of aerospace and defense sectors, automotive, wind turbine, and construction industries widely use fiber reinforced composites, due to their high specific stiffness/strength, property tailoring capability, improved fatigue, and corrosion resistance [1,2]. Laminated composites possess numerous weaknesses like low impact resistance, delamination problems, low transverse mechanical properties, and weak fiber–matrix interface During their maintenance, service life, these composites structures can be subjected to different impact loading conditions such as high, medium, and low velocity and are susceptible to such impact loadings. The low velocity impact occurs for example during maintenance by tool drop (or) by runway debris which is difficult to detect as impact damage is not so visible as opposed to high velocity impact damage This type of damage can progress during service loading conditions and significantly reduces the structural integrity (strength and stiffness) of the structures [3,4]. The application of structural health monitoring (SHM) to evaluate the barely visible impact damages (BVID) becomes of paramount importance
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