Experimental analysis of ice sphere impacts on unidirectional carbon/epoxy laminates

•The main failure mechanism that appears in the composite panels is delamination.•Most of the panels exhibit no-delaminated or almost full delaminated area.•A dimensionless variable that describes the influence of parameters is presented.

This work analyses the behaviour of carbon/epoxy unidirectional laminates subjected to high velocity impacts of ice spheres. To this end, ice projectiles were launched against composite laminates in a wide range of velocities (50 − 250 m/s50 − 250 m/s). Two different ice diameters (40 and 50 mm) and two laminate thicknesses (4 and 6 mm) were considered. The internal damage was measured using both destructive and non-destructive techniques, which allow an accurate quantification of the delaminated area. Finally the influence of the different parameters considered on the damage of the laminate is analysed by means of a dimensionless variable.