SINGLE AND MULTIPLE IMPACT BEHAVIOR OF A CFRP LAMINATE

Single and repeated impact tests have been conducted on a thin (0, 45, 0) CFRP laminate using an instrumented dropweight impact rig. For sin gle impacts the data suggest that the initiation of failure is governe d by the impact force rather than the impact energy and a limiting max imum force of 570 N was observed for our circularly clamped plates. Ch anges in the rate of increase in impact force could be related to chan ge in damage with increasing impact energy. Damage caused by repeated impacts at energies of 0.54 and 0.73 J did not produce changes in the peak impact force. However a second impact at 0.93 J produced a signif icant reduction in the peak force and an increase in impact duration.