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Low-velocity impact studies on GFRP and hybrid composite structures

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Abstract

In this study, low-velocity impact analysis on glass fibre-reinforced polymer (GFRP) and hybrid laminates is performed through an explicit numerical analysis and relevant experiments. Hybridised composite laminates are fabricated by sandwiching the flexible Polycarbonate sheet between the glass fibre-reinforced polymer laminas. In order to analyse the improvement in the impact resistance of hybrid laminates, low-velocity impact tests are performed on both GFRP and hybrid laminates by dropping an impactor from various pre-defined heights and the absorbed energy in each case is estimated. Results from the numerical analysis are validated with experimental results. Based on the numerical and experimental analysis, variation of the absorbed energy as a function time is estimated. Furthermore, shapes of the damaged areas are also estimated using the experimental specimens. Analysis of results indicates that the hybrid laminates display better energy absorption characteristics before rupture, as compared to the GFRP laminates. For a given energy absorption weight, savings up to 30.77% are observed using polycarbonate-based hybrid composites as compared to the GFRP laminates.

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Acknowledgements

Harshavardhan Shetty would like to thank the computational and experimental facilities provided by PES University to perform the reported numerical and experimental studies.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, PES University, Bengaluru, 560085, India

    Harshavardhan Shetty & D. Sethuram

  2. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Dayananda Sagar University, Bangalore, 560114, India

    B. Rammohan

  3. School of Mechanical Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology, Bhubaneswar, 752050, India

    P. R. Budarapu

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Appendix A: Fabrication of GFRP and hybrid laminates

Appendix A: Fabrication of GFRP and hybrid laminates

Hybrid laminates of thickness 3 mm are manufactured by sandwiching serrated 2-mm PC sheets in between 0.5-mm GFRP laminates using an adhesive, epoxy resin ‘AV 138 IN’ and hardener ‘HV 998 IN’. The resin ensures the compatibility between the polycarbonate and GFRP. This is particularly required since polycarbonate and GFRP sheets have different adhesive properties. As a result of different characteristics, a resin along with an hardener is used to bond the GFRP and polycarbonate laminates. The selected resin and hardener combination ensures room temperature curing and strong bonding. Furthermore, in order to facilitate the adhesion between GFRP and polycarbonate layers, serrations at \(+ 45 ^\circ\) and \(-45^\circ\) were created on either side of the polycarbonate sheet; see Fig. 14a.

Fig. 14
figure 14

Fabrication and testing of GFRP and hybrid laminates. a Serrations created on either side of the polycarbonate sheet. b The GFRP and hybrid laminates prepared for lap joint test. The c front and d top schematic views highlighting the geometry details of the specimens in b

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After application of the adhesives, the panel (GFRP/PC) is allowed to cure at room temperature for \(\approx 24 \,\hbox {hours}\). During the curing process, cross-linking between the uniformly distributed adhesive and the laminas can be established. Followed by curing, an adhesive bond shear strength test as per ASTM D1002 standard considering a single lap joint was performed before the impact testing. The GFRP and hybrid laminates prepared for lap joint test are shown in Fig. 14b, where the geometry details of the specimens are highlighted in the front and top schematic views in Fig. 14c, d, respectively. The bonding test is required to validate the strength of the bond such that bond failures during the impact test can be eliminated, thereby avoiding the wrong assessment of the impact test data. Experiments were carried on \(25\times 100 \times 0.5 \,\hbox {mm}^3\) GFRP and \(25\times 100 \times 2 \,\hbox {mm}^3\) polycarbonate specimens, with a bond area of \(25\times 12.5 \,\hbox {mm}^2\); see Fig. 14. The experiments are carried out at the National Analytical Laboratories and Research Center (NALRC), Bangalore, India.

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Shetty, H., Sethuram, D., Rammohan, B. et al. Low-velocity impact studies on GFRP and hybrid composite structures. Int J Adv Eng Sci Appl Math 12, 125–141 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12572-021-00287-9

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