Impact response of composite plates manufactured with stitch-bonded non-crimp glass fiber fabrics

This experimental study deals with the impact response of composite plates manufactured with stitch-bonded non-crimp glass fiber fabrics. Three kinds of fabrics - biaxial, triaxial, and quadraxial - are used as reinforcing material. Polyester resin is used as a matrix material in the composition of composite plates. An instrumented drop weight impact testing machine, InstronDynatup 9250 HV, is used for impact testing. Impact tests are performed under various impact energies, ranging from damage initiation to final perforation. An energy profiling method, showing the relation between impact energy and absorbed energy, was used together with load-deflection curves to determine the penetration and perforation thresholds of those composites. The failure processes of damaged specimens for different impact energies were evaluated by comparing load-deflection curves and images of damaged samples taken from the impacted and non-impacted sides. All types of composites have obvious penetration and perforation thresholds. The perforation threshold of triaxial/polyester composite is approximately 27% and 22% higher than that of the quadraxial and biaxial/polyester composites, respectively.