A Study on Damage and Penetration Behaviour of Carbon Fiber Reinforced Plastic Sandwich at Various Impacts

In this study, an impact experiment was conducted on carbon fibre reinforced plastic sandwich composite material and a simulation was performed for verification purposes. Carbon fibre reinforced plastic is known to have more outstanding material characteristics than general metal in terms of non-rigidity, specific modulus, fatigue characteristics as well as wear-, heat- and corrosion-resistance. Also, it has a long fatigue lifetime and excellent environmental safety. For these reasons, it is used widely in aviation, national defence, automotive, sports and other industrial fields. In the experiment, impact energy was applied on fixed specimens in increments of 30J from 30J to 90J. The results showed that the specimen was penetrated by a striker with impact energy of 90J, but not with 30J and 60J For the simulation, ANSYS was used to apply the same boundary condition as the actual case for a finite element analysis. The data obtained from the experiment and the simulation were found to be similar Thus, it was deemed possible to use the results of the impact analysis on the carbon fibre reinforced plastic sandwich to predict the structural stability of such materials after various impacts. These results will not only be applicable in various fields, but also serve as important data in the development of safety design of composite materials.