A new damage index for the indentation depth evaluation of composites under low velocity impact loads

The effectiveness of a new empirical model, aiming to predict the indentation depth resulting in a composite laminate from a hemispherical tup impacting it at low velocity, is here proposed. With this simple model including only the diameter of the impactor and the ratio between the impact energy and the perforation one, a material-independent parameter characterising the indentation depth is identified. Several samples with different thicknesses, impacted by various impactor tips, are tested for estimating this parameter. To reach the above mentioned scopes, low velocity impact tests were carried out on two different composite systems with different stacking sequences, thicknesses and fiber volume fractions: (a) glass/epoxy prepreg; (b) graphite/epoxy prepreg. The samples were simply supported on steel plates or clamped and they were struck at the center by hemispherical steel noses having 16 and 19.8 mm diameters. After impact, indentation was measured according to EN 6038 standard. The CFRP indentation data were drawn from a database: about 200 test records, generated by various researchers were individuated. The advantages of the new model are that the effect of the tup diameter is explicitly accounted for. Furthermore, a single material constant has to be experimentally determined and it can be assumed as an index for the indentation sensitivity, on the basis of which different materials can be ranked. The constant was found similar for GFRP and CFRP laminates denoting independence of constraint conditions, laminate type or laminae orientation and stacking sequence.