Investigation on the low-velocity impact behaviour of non-symmetric FMLs—experimental and numerical methods

Abstract

This article aims to investigate the low-velocity impact behaviour of non-symmetric FMLs bonded with aluminium sheets and carbon fibre composite laminates by experimental and numerical methods. Two types of non-symmetric FMLs (bilayered and trilaminar FMLs) are fabricated to study the effect of structure configuration on impact behaviour over a range of impact energies, both sides of each non-symmetric FML are impacted to explore failure modes and damage mechanisms. A progressive damage model based on the Hashin and Yeh delamination failure criterion is developed to predict the damage initiation and evolution of composite laminates. Numerical predictions are nearly consistent with experimental results, in terms of impact load, energy absorption and failure mechanisms. This study shows that the damage behaviour is closely related to the impacted side. In addition, the delamination damage on the aluminium-composite interface is greatly affected by impact energy, aluminium sheet thickness and location of aluminium-composite interface.