Investigation of the behaviour of a chopped strand mat/woven roving/foam-Klegecell composite lamination structure during Charpy testing

This paper presents the investigation of the characteristic behaviour of polymer matrix composites under Charpy impact conditions with different design configurations of the laminate structure. The aim of this study was to evaluate the capability of different lamination designs for composite materials, in term of contact load, energy absorption, deflection and damage behaviour. In this study, laminated panels were fabricated using chopped strand mat (CSM), woven roving fabric (WR) and foam-PVC Klegecell as reinforcement with a combination of epoxy or polyester resin, respectively. Structural panels of composite laminates were produced using a hand lay-up technique. Each configuration design was impact tested to failure. Finite element analyses (FEA) were employed in this study to correlate the experimental value of energy absorption with simulation results. The characteristics of different reinforcement types, matrix type, hybrid type, architecture and orientation type were studied. These characteristics need to be considered, due to their affecting the characteristic behaviour of the composite lamination structures. Based on the results, it was found that differences in configuration design of the lamination structure of the polymer matrix composites do influence the strength and weakness of the materials.