Impact Testing on Composite Laminates and Sandwich Panels

The purpose of this work was the evaluation of the behavior of fiber-reinforced composites and sandwich panels for aeronautical applications under impact. Experimental tests were performed on several specimen configurations, based on different quasi-isotropic lay-up and materials such CFRP, CFRTP and a syntactic foam as the core of sandwich panels. Considering the high specific mechanics characteristics of such a foam and its cocurability with the facesheet material, symmetric and non-symmetric sandwich configurations have been tested. The study has pointed out the advantages for aeronautic constructions of different materials and the influence of the core position along the panel thickness. The impact tests were performed with a falling weight machine, which allowed the most important dynamic and kinetic parameters, such as the contact force, impactor velocity and displacement and perforation energy to be measured. Delamination areas of each specimen were also measured using N.D.I. reflection ultrasonic techniques. In order to determine the residual strength, Compression After Impact tests were performed on specimens that have an indentation of approximately 0.3-0.4 mm. A numerical simulation was performed using a transient dynamic Finite Element Analysis. The main goal of this analysis was to define the controlling factors for high velocity impact simulation, such as the increase of geometric non-linearity and the delamination effects. Moreover, the delamination areas and positions were determined taking in account the different boundary conditions. The study have pointed out the behavior of thermoset, thermoplastic and unsymmetric sandwich panels.