Ballistic penetration damages of hybrid plain-woven laminates with carbon,Kevlar and UHMWPE fibers in different stacking sequences

Hybrid composite materials combine different fibers in preform and take advantages of different mechanical behaviors for improving ballistic impact damage tolerances.Here we report ballistic impact damages of plain-woven laminates with different hybrids and stacking sequences.Three kinds of hybrid laminates,i.e.,carbon/Kevlar,carbon/ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene(UHMWPE),and UHMWPE/Kevlar,had been prepared and tested in ballistic penetration with fragment simulating projectiles(FSP).The residual velocities of the projectiles and impact damage morphologies of the laminates have been obtained to show impact energy absorptions for the different hybrid schemes.A microstructural model of the hybrid laminates had also been established to show impact damage mechanisms with finite element analysis(FEA).We found that the UHMWPE/Kevlar hybrid laminates with Kevlar layers as the front face have the highest energy absorption capacity,followed by the carbon/Kevlar hybrid laminates with carbon layers as the front face.The main damage modes are fiber breakages,matrix crack and interlayer delamination.The ballistic damage evolutions from the FEA results show that the major damage is shear failure for front layers,while tension failure for the back layers.We expect that the ballistic impact performance could be improved from the different hybrid schemes.

Development of cost effective personnel armour through structural hybridization

The objective of the present study is to develop cost effective thermoplastic hybrid laminate using Dyneema®HB50 and Tensylon®HSBD 30A through structural hybridization method.Laminates having 20 mm thickness were fabricated and subjected to 7.62
39 mm mild steel core projectile with an impact velocity of 730±10 ms1.Parameters such as energy absorption,back face deformation and rate of back face deformation were measured as a function of hybridization ratio.It was observed that hybrid laminate with 50:50 ratio(w/w)of Tensylon®and Dyneema®with Tensylon®as front face showed 200%more energy absorption when compared to 100%Tensylon®laminate and showed equal energy absorption as that of expensive 100%Dyneema®laminate.Moreover,hybrid laminate with TD50:50 ratio showed 40%lower in terms of final back face deformation than Dyneema®laminate.Rate of back face deformation was also found to be slow for hybrid laminate as compared to Dyneema®laminate.Dynamic mechanical analysis showed that,Tensylon®laminate has got higher stiffness and lower damping factor than Dyneema®and hybrid laminates.The interface between Tensylon®and Dyneema®layers was found to be separating during the penetration process due to the poor interfacial bonding.Failure behaviour of laminates for different hybridization ratios were studied by sectioning the impacted laminates.It was observed that,the Tensylon®laminate has undergone shear cutting of fibers as major failure mode whereas the hybrid laminate showed shear cutting followed by tensile stretching,fiber pull out and delamination.These inputs are highly useful for body armour applications to design cost effective armour with enhanced performance.

THERMO-PIEZOELECTRIC EFFECTS ON THE POSTBUCKLING OF AXIALLY-LOADED HYBRID LAMINATED CYLINDRICAL PANELS

A compressive postbuckling analysis is presented for a laminated cylinderical panel with piezoelectric actuators subjected to the combined action of mechanical, electrical and thermal loads. The temperature field considered is assumed to be a uniform distribution over the panel surface and through the panel thickness and the electric field is assumed to be the transverse component E_Z only. The material properties are assumed to be independent of the temperature and the electric field. The governing equations are based on the classical shell theory with von Krmn-Donnell-type of kinematic nonlinearity. The nonlinear prebuckling deformations and initial geometric imperfections of the panel are both taken into account. A boundary layer theory of shell buckling,which includes the effects of nonlinear prebuckling deformations, large deflections in the postbuckling range,and initial geometric imperfections of the shell,is extended to the case of hybrid laminated cylindrical panels of finite length. A singular perturbation technique is employed to determine the buckling loads and postbuckling equilibrium paths. The numerical illustrations concern the compressive postbuckling behavior of perfect and imperfect, cross-ply laminated cylindrical thin panels with fully covered or embedded piezoelectric actuators under different sets of thermal and electrical loading conditions.The effects played by temperature rise,applied voltage,stacking sequence,the character of in-plane boundary conditions,as well as initial geometric imperfections are studied.

Experimental evaluation of blanking and piercing of PVC based composite and hybrid laminates

Blanking is one of the high speed processes to produce fiat products from sheets economically. In order to expand this process to new materials, the blanking of polyvinyl chloride （PVC）/fiberglass thermoplastic com- posite laminates and composite/aluminum hybrid laminates was investigated. The laminates were produced by the film stacking procedure and then blanked by circular die and punches. The blanking process was done in two levels of clearance including 4% and 8% of the laminates thickness, two levels of punch speed including 40 mm/min and 200 mm/min and at two levels of temperature （room tem- perature and 80 ℃） for both composite and hybrid laminates. The effects of the parameters on the maximum blanking force, cutting energy, and quality and precision of sheared edges were studied. Cutting mechanism for blanking in different conditions was explained. It was concluded that at room temperature, blanked composite and hybrid laminates had a high quality of sheared edges but at elevated temperature, although the maximum blanking force was reduced, the quality of sheared edge was reduced significantly.