Experimental investigation of Glass Laminate Aluminium Reinforced Epoxy characteristics influences through low velocity impact test

ABSTRACT

The fibre being one of the recently implemented advanced materials in distinctive applications is being reinforced with metals to constitute a unique composite laminate. This reinforcement will enhance the sustenance property of the laminate used in automotive sectors. In most automotive sectors, drop weight analysis at varying velocity ranges is performed to evaluate the damage characteristics of the vehicle body. Hence, the present work leads us through the study on influence of low-velocity impact at varying heights over the Glass Laminate Aluminium-Reinforced Epoxy (GLARE) laminate characteristics. Here, the laminate of constant thickness was subjected to drop weight impact. Three distinct thicknesses of (0.2, 0.3 and 0.4 mm) Al-2024 T3 aluminium alloy were used. The results indicate that laminate can sustain up to critical load in terms of impact velocity as 3.13 m/s, and beyond which, it leads to delamination damage at 3.49 m/s. The above results indicate that the maximum absorbed energy by the laminate before catastrophic failure (crack) was noticed to be 14.43 J in the case of sample B. Further, it is noticed that GLARE laminate with 0.3 mm face sheet thickness has best results with reference to both absorbed energy and damage when compared with other thicknesses.

KEYWORDS:

• GLARE
• low-velocity impact
• drop weight test
• SEM

Acknowledgements

Since this is a non-funded work, there has been no significant financial support for this work that could have influenced its outcome.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.