The effect of different structural designs on impact resistance to carbon fiber foam sandwich structures

Abstract

The development of the composite materials in the past decades has made the composite materials more and more widely used in various engineering fields. The mechanical properties of the composite materials are gradually improved, especially the impact resistance. In this article, the damage of carbon fiber foam sandwich structure (material grade: W-3021FF/H60) under different sandwich thicknesses and impact energies was studied. Ultrasonic C-scan was used to measure the depth and area of impact damage area. Finally, the impact energy and foam core thickness on impact damage was analyzed by test results. The results show that the impact damage depth and area of foam sandwich structure were positively related to the impact energy, and with the increase in the impact energy, the growth rate of damage depth and damage area changes; the greater the thickness of the foam core was, the stronger the span-direction guiding energy for impact energy, the larger the damage area and the smaller the damage depth. Under the same energy, the more the layers of carbon fiber cloth with the foam sandwich structure, the larger the impact damage depth and the smaller the impact damage area. The proportion of ±45° ply in the foam sandwich structure can improve its impact resistance.

Keywords

• composite
• impact
• ultrasonic c-scan
• mechanical properties
• sandwich structure