Damage Analysis of Hybrid Composites Under Multi-Impact Loads: An Experimental and Numerical Study

Laminated composite structures are subjected to impact damage during maintenance and manufacturing operations and their life service. Driven by the necessity to value damage tolerance and durability of composite materials, an analysis of multi-hit impact is conducted to reproduce the real service conditions. Despite many studies in the literature investigated the properties of composites at low impact velocity, in contrast the behavior of the hybrid configuration, especially at repeated impacts, result still little known. This work presents an experimental and numerical study of the dynamic behavior at the repeated low-velocity impact of a carbon and glass fibers hybrid composite laminate.