Experimental and Numerical Study of Multi-Energy Low-Velocity Impact and Compression-After-Impact Damage Mechanism of 3D Woven Composites

Abstract

Carbon fiber fabric composites as a multiphase material have excellent mechanical properties such as high specific modulus, stable performance, and high temperature resistance. However, such as two-dimensional fabric composites are prone to invisible damage or even delamination after being subjected to out-of-plane impact, so to enhance the delamination resistance of the composites, bundled fibers are introduced in the direction of the thickness of the composites to form 3D fabrics, but due to the 3D fabric composites are subjected to out-of-plane load, the bundled fibers undergo deformation and curling, which seriously affects the in-plane properties of the composites. In the study of impact and damage resistance of composites, it is necessary to study the damage mechanism and understand the influence of fiber structure on its performance and failure form. However, there is a lack of research on the compression-after-impact (CAI) properties of 3D composites. This paper focuses on the progress of research on the damage of 3D interlaminar orthotropic fabric composites after low-velocity impacts (LVI) and the damage problem in post-impact CAI. The effects of fiber structure on CAI compression performance and damage mechanism of composites are studied in depth with the help of a new finite element model by combining experiments and finite element simulation. Finally, the development trend of the damage problem of 3D fabric composites and the future research content are discussed.