Static residual tensile strength response of GFRP composite laminates subjected to low-velocity impact

Abstract

The dependency of the static residual tensile strength for the Glass Fiber-Reinforced Plastic (GFRP) laminates after impact on the impact energy level and indent shape is investigated. In this study, two different laminates, unidirectional, [0°2]s) and TRI (tri-axial, (±45°/0°)2]s), were prepared using the vacuum infusion method, and an impact indent on the respective laminates was created at different energy levels with pyramidal and hemispherical impactors. Impact damage patterns, such as matrix cracking, delamination, debonding and fiber breakage, could be observed on the GFRP laminates by a scanning electron microscope (SEM), and it is found that those were dependent on the impactor head shape and laminate structure. Residual in-plane tensile strength of the impacted laminates was measured and the reduction of the strength is found to be dependent upon the impact damage patterns. Furthermore, in this study, stress concentrations in the vicinity of the indents were determined from full-field stress distribution obtained by three-dimensional Digital Image Correlation (3D DIC) measurement. It was found that the stress concentration was associated with the reduction of the residual strength for the GFRP laminates.