Effects of stacking thickness on the damage behavior in CFRP composite cylinders subjected to out-of-plane loading

The purpose of this study is to evaluate effects of stacking thickness on the microscopic damage behavior in a filament wound carbon fiber reinforced plastics (FW-CFRPs) composite cylinder subjected to impact or quasi-static out-of-plane loading. From both tests, thicker CFRP improved the stiffness of the cylinder and decreased the resultant plastic deformation due to indentation. From the cross-sectional observation, it is clarified that fiber breakages were localized for the specimens with impact tests more than 10-layers and specimens with quasi-static tests more than 15-layers. In order to discuss the relation between the damage and the absorbed energy, damage depth ratio was defined as fiber damage depth per unit CFRP thickness. To normalize the effect of thickness, absorbed energy ratio was also defined as absorbed energy per unit CFRP thickness. Absorbed energy ratio as a function of absorbed energy ratio was expressed as one master curve regardless of loading conditions. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.