Impact resistance of lightweight hybrid structures for gas turbine engine fan containment applications

The ballistic impact resistance of hybrid composite sandwich structures was evaluated with the ultimate goal of developing new materials or structures for potential gas turbine engine, fan containment applications. The sandwich structures investigated consisted of GLARE-5 (Aviation Equipment, Inc., Costa Mesa, CA) laminates as face sheets with lightweight cellular metallic materials such as honeycomb, foam, and lattice block as a core material. The impact resistance of these hybrid sandwich structures was compared with GLARE-5 laminates and 2024-T3 Al sheets, which were tested as a function of areal weight (material thickness). The GLARE-5 laminates exhibited comparable impact properties to that of 2024-T3 Al at low areal weights, even though there were significant differences in the static tensile properties of these materials. The GLARE-5, however, did have a greater ballistic limit than straight aluminum sheet at higher areal weights. Furthermore, there is up to a 25% advantage in ballistic limit for the GLARE-5/foam sandwich structures compared with straight 2024-T3 Al. But no advantage in ballistic limit was observed between any of the hybrid sandwich structures and thicker versions of GLARE-5. Recommendations for future work are provided, based on these preliminary data.