A comparative study on ballistic impact behaviors of glass/epoxy composites

Abstract

This paper presents an experimental and numerical study to evaluate the ballistic performance of E-glass/epoxy and S2-glass/epoxy composites. Composite materials were produced by vacuum assisted resin infusion molding method. All the specimens were then subjected to ballistic impact tests by gas-gun system. Residual velocities were measured by high-speed camera for different velocities. Ballistic limits of all composites were obtained by curve fitting residual velocity-impact velocity data. It was found that S2-glass/epoxy composite has a higher ballistic limit than E-glass/epoxy. S2-glass/epoxy has also more specific absorbed energy and absorbed energy density than E-glass/epoxy. Numerical results were in good agreement with experimental results.

Keywords:

• Comparative study
• ballistic impact
• E-glass/epoxy
• S2-glass/epoxy
• finite element method

Acknowledgments

In memory of Prof. Dr. Onur Sayman, who educated us academically and has been an outstanding mentor and role model to us, we would like to express our deepest gratitude.

The authors would also like to thank Prof. Dr. Recep Gunes, Assist. Prof. Dr. Umut Calışkan, and Assoc. Prof. Dr. Murat Aydın for their help in ballistic testing.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).