Studies on factors influencing Low Velocity Impact of Composite Materials – A Review

Abstract

Composite Materials has been the de-facto material of choice in the aerospace and automotive industry mainly due to its high strength to weight ratio. Composite materials fabricated by different methods have been used in the above fields, some have found to be resistant to failure while some have failed to live-up to the expected results. Therefore, it is evident that, although composite materials provide excellent directional properties, failure in composite materials is a key area that many researchers have been studying for many decades and may still continue with development of newer materials. One such failure that can occur in composite materials is due to impact loading and the focus of this paper is to review the factors associated with Low Velocity Impact. In general, damage in composite material is a serious issue and factors that contribute needs to be studied in depth, since this may lead to catastrophic failure and some failures that is generated, may not be visible to the naked eye. Failure arising from LVI is not limited to fibre matrix cracking, de-bonding, delamination, fibre pull out and possible ways to overcome these effects may be of significant importance particularly in the aerospace industry and possible ways to improve them is discussed in this paper.