16th International Conference on Composite Structures

ICCS 16

LOW, MEDIUM AND HIGH VELOCITY IMPACT ON COMPOSITES

* * *
Sang Nguyen , Thomas James and Lorenzo Iannucci
*
Department of Aeronautics, Imperial College London
South Kensington Campus, London SW7 2AZ, United Kingdom
e-mail: lo.iannucci@imperial.ac.uk, web page: http://www.imperial.ac.uk

Key words: Composite structures, Low velocity, Medium velocity, High velocity, Impact.

Summary. Experimental studies are conducted to investigate the low, medium and high
impact velocity response of 4 mm thick quasi-isotropic CFRP coupons. Tests are conducted
using a drop weight tower and gas gun with impactor of masses of 4.75 kg, 16.41 g and 8.44
g to obtain three energy levels for each velocity regime. Impacts at 10 J, 40 J and 120 J
produced minor delamination, larger delaminations with fibre fracture and perforation
respectively.

1 INTRODUCTION
Impact on composites has received great attention due to the increasing use of lightweight
composite materials in aircraft primary structures. Many studies have been conducted to
model the impact event, both analytically and numerically to predict the onset and extent of
damage [1,2]. The objective of this investigation was to obtain experimental data for
validation of finite element models used to predict the damage due to low, medium and high
velocity impacts. Within each velocity regime, three energy levels are considered. The energy
levels of 10 J, 40 J and 120 J were chosen to correspond to those producing minor
delamination, extended delaminations/fibre fracture and perforation. For all speed and energy
regimes, two material configurations were tested, monolithic plates and bondline plates.

2 LOW VELOCITY IMPACT

Low velocity impact testing is carried out using a drop weight impactor with a mass of
4.75 kg and a 16 mm diameter hemispherical tup. The 150 mm x 100 mm x 4 mm QI CFRP
plates are c-scanned before being clamped in a 125 mm x 75 mm window frame with simply
supported edges. During the impact, load-time histories and impact velocities are recorded.
Displacement-time histories are then determined by numerical integration of the load history.
High speed videos of the back face of the 40 J and 120 J tests are also recorded at 10,000 fps
using a Phantom V12 high speed camera. For the 10 J and 40 J cases, barely visible damage is
seen on the front impact faces with blistering of the surface and minor fibre fractures
respectively on the back faces. For the 120 J impacts, star formation cracks on the front face
and extensive splitting along the direction of the back surface plies. The extent of the internal
damage is shown in the c-scans in Figure 1. Observations of both external and internal
damage for monolithic and bondline plates showed no discernible differences in their impact
resistance.
 Sang Nguyen,
Nguyen Thomas James and Lorenzo Iannucci.

Figure 1: C-scans
scans of impacted specimens at 10 J (bottom), 40 J (middle) and 120 J (top). The specimens on
the left hand side show delaminations in the monolithic plates while delaminations
delamination in the bondline specimens are
shown on the right.

3 MEDIUM AND HIGH VELOCITY IMPACT

A gas gun driven by nitrogen is used to launch 1/2 inch and 5/8 inch diameter steel ball
bearings perpendicular to the specimens at speeds determined by the pressure required to
burst films of various
ous thicknesses.
thicknesses. The specimens are secured to a steel frame supporting only
the back face and projectile impact speed is measured using a light gate timing circuit. High
speed video images of the impact event are recorded at 28,000 fps,
fp , which allowed calculation
calcu
of the post impact velocities. Further tests are conducted with two strain gauges on the impact
face and with frame rates of 130,000 fps to measure the deceleration of the projectile.

Figure 2: High speed video sequence of a 120 J impact of a 12.7 mm steel sphere against a 4 mm thick
monolithic CFRP plate.

4 CONCLUSIONS
Examination of the failed specimens by visual inspection and c-scan c scan has shown a very
similar extent of damage for both the monolithic
monolithic and bondline specimens.
specimens In the high
velocity, high energy tests, penetration of the projectile occurred in every case for monolithic
specimens whereas bondline specimens appeared to have a higher ballistic limit.

REFERENCES
[1] G. A. O. Davies, and R. R Olsson, Impact on Composite Structures,, The Aeronautical
Journal, 108, 1089, 541-563
563 (2004).
(2004)
[2] S. Abrate, Impact
Impact on Laminated Composites: Recent Advances,
Advances Appl.
Appl Mech. Rev, 47,
11, 517-544 (1994).