Multi-impact tolerance of carbon/epoxy laminate composite

This work is motivated by increasingly used of composite structures under severe loading conditions. During their use, these materials are often subjected to impact as for example, in the aeronautical field the fall of hailstone on structure composites. In fact, the low energy traditional impact tests don’t allow to see the evolution of the damage and don’t permit also to compare the best tolerance to impact between different stratifications. The multi-impact tests made it possible to find a solution to this problem. In this work, multi-impact tests are performed on three carbon / epoxy stratifications. The final goal is to predict the durability of the composite structures during impact loading for their design.

This study brings to light the response of multi-impact tests through force-time and force-displacement curves obtained experimentally. On the other hand, a parameter D has introduced following the experimental results. This made it possible to rank the three stratifications from their tolerance to multi-impact tests. To evaluate the post impact damage, ultrasonic testing techniques are used. The results allow to find the relationship between the damaged surface obtained by the ultrasonic control and the parameter D and to rank the three laminates configurations.