Damage Assessment of Curved Composite Laminate Structures Subjected to Low-Velocity Impact

곡률을 가진 적층복합재 구조에서의 저속충격손상 평가

Damage induced by low-velocity impact on the curved composite laminates was experimentally evaluated for CFRP cylindrical shells with the radius of curvatures of 50, 150, 300, and 500 mm. The result was then compared with that of flat laminates. The radius of curvatures and the effective shell stiffness appeared to considerably affect the dynamic impact response of curved shells. Under the same impact energy level, the maximum contact force increased with the decreasing radius of curvatures, with reaching 1.5 times that for plates at the radius of curvature of 50 mm. Since the maximum contact force is directly related to the impact damage, curved laminates can be more susceptible to delamination and less resistant to the low-velocity impact damage. The distribution of delamination along the thickness direction of curved laminates are also different from that of flat plates. Delamination was distributed rather even]y at each interface along the thickness direction of curved laminates. This implies that the effect of curvatures has to be considered for the design of a curved composite laminate.