Experimental And Finite Element Analysis Of Mechanical Response On Unidirectional Glass Fibre Epoxy Laminate
Research in low velocity impact loading of composites is aimed at reducing the degree of damage in order to improve the damage tolerance. A number of approaches have been used to improve the impact damage resistance and tolerance of composite materials. These include control of fiber/matrix interfacial adhesion, laminate design and through the thickness reinforcement. One of the techniques of arresting delamination is providing through-the-thickness reinforcement like stitching. The objective of this work is to understand the influence of stitching on the impact of the laminate. In this paper, the drop weight impact properties of stitched and unstitched glass fibre epoxy laminate are compared experimentally and the damaged specimen are assessed using back lighting photographic technique. A detailed comparison between the stitched and unstitched laminates experimentally confirmed that the stitching effectively suppressed the out of plane impact damage.