Experimental investigation on low-velocity impact and compression after impact behaviors of GFRP laminates with steel mesh reinforced

Abstract

This article aims to evaluate the effects of mesh size change on the mechanical properties of GFRP laminates, via low-velocity impact and compression-after-impact (CAI) test, and the failure mechanism was analyzed. Through vacuum-assisted resin infusion, wire meshes with different mesh numbers and wire diameters were incorporated into GFRP. Based on response history and failure morphology, the results show that the addition of wire mesh can disperse the incident energy from the impact center to the outer region, thereby improving the impact resistance of GFRP. It is worth noting that increasing the number of mesh could improve the stiffness of the panels and enhance their ability in CAI events compared with increasing the diameter of wires, their failure evolution was presented from the perspective of digital image correlation (DIC). For example, the maximum displacement of 0.50–40 J decreased by 10.6% from 2.5 to 2.26 mm compared with 20–60 J.

Keywords

• gfrp laminates
• compression-after-impact
• low-velocity impact
• failure mechanism
• metal mesh reinforced