Experimental study on high-velocity impact damage behavior of carbon fiber reinforced composite laminates

Carbon fiber reinforced composite laminates are widely used in the field of aerospace. Service environment of all kinds of aircraft makes the airframe vulnerable to impact loads. In this paper, the damage behavior of laminates under impact loading was studied by experimental method of gas gun impact tests. Taking into consideration the different impact conditions that include attitudes, shapes, velocity and others of the projectile during the tests, we summarized the basic failure process and typical damage modes. The main mechanism of the different fracture modes formed in the period of early penetration was obtained by comparing the damage morphology. Through this work, we will achieve understanding of the interaction between shape of projectile and damage behavior, which is of great importance for the simplification of analysis methods for impact problems.