New paper: On how unsymmetrical laminate designs with tailored ply clusters affect compression after impact strength compared to symmetric baseline

11 Jun New paper: On how unsymmetrical laminate designs with tailored ply clusters affect compression after impact strength compared to symmetric baseline

The new paper “On how unsymmetrical laminate designs with tailored ply clusters affect compression after impact strength compared to symmetric baseline” by AMADE researchers A. Sasikumar, S.M. García Rodríguez, J.J. Arbeláez, D. Trias and J. Costa is accepted for publication in Composite Structures (April 2020).

This contribution describes a specific design of unsymmetrical laminates intended to force the impact damage to happen at desired locations. Specimens following this design have been tested under impact and compression after impact and compared to standard laminates. The damage has been observed with X-ray tomography and C-scan inspection. A 10% improved in strength has been found in the unsymmetrical laminate designs.

Paper information

Highlights

• We proposed unsymmetrical laminates tailored to force the impact damage to happen at desired locations.
• The designed unsymmetrical laminates were tested under impact and compression after impact (CAI) and
  compared against a standard baseline symmetric laminate.
• X-ray tomography and C-scan inspection were used to study in detail the through-the-thickness damage.
• One of the proposed designs improves the CAI strength by 10% over the baseline.
• The study suggests that symmetric laminates may not be the optimal solution towards out of plane loads,
  and evidences the feasibility of unsymmetrical designs.

Project and Funding

• Funding institutions:Generalitat de Catalunya for the FI-DGR pre-doctoral grant (2018 FI-B2 00118),

  Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovacíon y Universidades for the grants coded RTI2018-097880-B-I00 and RTI2018-099373-B-I00..