An analysis for arrest toughness of impact-induced delamination in carbon/epoxy laminates

A model is proposed to identify an arrest toughness, which governs a delamination in laminates. Also, a statistical analysis is conducted to identify a variation of arrest toughness due to material nonhomogeneity. To these ends, impact and 3-point bending tests are performed on the Carbon/Epoxy laminates with various thickness. The fracture behavior can be described by a crack arrest concept. The arrest toughness can be evaluated by an elastic work factor. Also, the Weibull distribution is suitable to predict a failure probability for the arrest toughness. Moreover, the variation of toughness increases gradually with the increase of the specimen thickness. This behavior may be attributed to a change of material nonhomogeneity with the specimen thickness.