Paper number 1032

IMPACT RESISTANCE AND TOLERANCE OF INTERLEAVED RTM LAMINATES

Andre Duarte¹ , Israel Herszberg² and Rowan Paton³ and Sir Lawrence Wackett¹

1Centre for Aerospace Design Technology, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, GPO Box 2476V, Melbourne, Victoria, 3001, Australia
2 Department of Aerospace Engineering, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, GPO Box 2476V, Melbourne, Victoria, 3001, Australia
3 Cooperative Research Centre for Advanced Composites Structures Limited 506 Lorimer Street, Fishermen's Bend, Victoria, 3207, Australia

Summary

This paper presents and discusses the results of low-velocity impact and compression-after-impact (CAI) tests conducted on interleaved and non-interleaved carbon/epoxy RTM laminates. The implementation of low modulus copolyamide web interleaves resulted in a negligible change in damage area and CAI behaviour. Examination of laminate cross sections revealed this was due to both the open structure of the interleaf and poor resin/interleaf adhesion. Olefin net interleaves were subsequently trialed, and provided a strong interface bond, resulting in a reduction in projected damage area. These interleaves changed the stress distribution under impact and restricted delamination formation at the ply interface. An investigation into the compression behaviour of these laminates revealed a reduction in undamaged strength using olefin interleaves. This was attributed to the lack of lateral support for fibres, allowing fibre microbuckling to occur at a low load.

Keywords

interleaving, impact, compression after impact, resin transfer moulding.