Assessment of two quasi-static approaches to mimic repeated impact response and damage behaviour of CFRP laminates

Full impact damage tolerance assessment requires the ability to properly mimic the repeated impact response and damage behaviour of composite materials using quasi-static approximations. To this aim, this paper reports an experimental investigation evaluating two quasi-static methods for mimicking repeated impact response and damage behaviour of Carbon Fibre Reinforced Polymer (CFRP) composite laminates. In this study, an 8.45-J single impact was repeated 225 times and mimicked with 225 times 6.51-J quasi-static (energy equivalent) indentations and with 225 quasi-static (force equivalent) indentations following the recorded impact peak force variation. Results show that the loading rate and the inertial effect are the two major factors affecting the responses of the composite laminates under out-of-plane concentrated loading. Both the energy- and force-equivalent quasi-static indentations failed to reproduce the impact responses greatly associated with high loading rate and inertial effect. The force-equivalent quasi-static indentations were performed in a semi-automatic way and induced damage states more similar to those of the repeated impacts than those of the energy-equivalent quasi-static indentations, whereas the latter can be better automated and has better reproducibility compared to that of the repeated impact responses, as it is less dependent on high loading rate and inertial effect.