Abstract
Composite materials are becoming more popular in technological applications due to the significant weight savings and strength offered by these materials compared to metallic materials. In many of these practical situations, the structures suffer from drop-impact loads. Materials and structures significantly change their behavior when submitted to impact loading conditions compared to quasi-static loading. The present work is devoted to investigating the thermal process in carbon-fiber-reinforced polymers (CFRP) subjected to a drop test. A novel drop-weight impact test experiment is performed to evaluate parameters specific to 3D composite materials. A strain gauge rosette and infrared thermography are employed to record the kinematic and thermal fields on the composites’ surfaces. This technique is nondestructive and offers an extensive full-field investigation of a material’s response. The combination of strain and infrared thermography data allows a comprehensive analysis of thermoelastic effects in CFRP when subjected to impacts. The experimental results are validated using numerical analysis by developing a MATLAB® code to analyze whether the coupled heat and wave equation phenomenon exists in a two-dimensional polar coordinate system by discretizing through a forward-time central-space (FTCS) finite-difference method (FDM). The results show the coupling has no significant impact as the waves generated due to impact disappears in 0.015 s. In contrast, heat diffusion happens for over a one-second period. This study demonstrates that the heat equation alone governs the CFRP heat flow process, and the thermoelastic effect is negligible for the specific drop-weight impact load.
Highlights
Materials are the fundamental elements of all natural and human-made structures
The dynamic strain reflected the behavior of the carbon-fiberreinforced polymers (CFRP) under drop impact for in-plane measurement
Some of the energy was consumed in generating sinusoidal vibrations the thermoelastic effect in the CFRP when it was subjected to impacts
Summary
Materials are the fundamental elements of all natural and human-made structures. New materials usually emerge due to the need to improve structural efficiency and performance.One of the best examples of this interrelated process is a composite material. Materials are the fundamental elements of all natural and human-made structures. New materials usually emerge due to the need to improve structural efficiency and performance. One of the best examples of this interrelated process is a composite material. Composites consist of two or more different materials in various combinations that form a structural unit. Composites are generally used because they have required properties that cannot be achieved through the use of the constituent materials alone. The most common example is a fibrous composite of reinforcing fibers embedded in a binder or matrix material. Fibers are the principal load-bearing members, while the surrounding matrix keeps them in their allocated position, and their orientation acts as a load-transfer medium between them and protects them from environmental damage due to chemical corrosion and humidity
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