The Impact Performance of Woven-Fabric Thermoplastic and Thermoset Composites Subjected to High-Velocity Soft- and Hard-Impact Loading

The present paper investigates the impact performance of woven-fabric carbon-fibre composites based upon both thermoplastic- and thermoset-matrix polymers under high-velocity impact loading by conducting gas-gun experiments at impact velocities of up to 100 m.s−1. The carbon-fibre reinforced-polymers (CFRPs) are impacted using soft- (i.e. gelatine) and hard- (i.e. aluminium-alloy) projectiles to simulate either a soft bird-strike or a hard foreign-body impact (e.g. runway debris), respectively, on typical composites employed in civil aircraft. The out-of-plane displacements of the impacted composite specimen are obtained by means of a three-dimensional Digital Image Correlation (DIC) system for the soft-projectile impact on the composites and the extent of damage is assessed both visually and by using portable C-scan equipment. The perforation resistance and energy absorbing capability of the composites are also studied by performing high-velocity impact experiments using the hard-projectile and the resulting extent and type of damage are identified. In addition, a Finite Element (FE) model is also developed to investigate the interaction between the projectile and the composite target.