Enhancing resistance to low-velocity impact of electrospun-manufactured interlayer-strengthened CFRP by using infrared thermography

This study investigates the effect of electrospun nylon nanofibres modification on the low-velocity impact resistance of carbon fibre reinforced polymer (CFRP) laminates. Integration of multiple excitation infrared thermography using advanced image processing techniques is used to characterize the damage as a function of impact energy. The results show an enhanced damage resistance for the modified specimens, which is also validated by force – displacement curves. The interlaminar cracks show a maximum reduction of 24.8%, while delaminated areas and defect depths experience reductions of up to 28.7% and 24.3%, respectively. Interestingly, thermal diffusivity is introduced to identify the damage shape successfully. Finally, a correlation study is conducted, and a novel damage prediction model based on thermal diffusivity is proposed for further quantitative analysis.