Comparative study on kevlar/carbon epoxy face sheets with rubber core sandwich composite for low velocity impact response: FE approach

Abstract

Recent trend has shifted towards replacing the conventional materials by fiber reinforced polymer composites for various structural applications since the fiber reinforced polymer composites exhibit high strength, lighter weight and low cost. This paper work concentrates on analysing the low velocity impact response of two types of sandwich composites namely kevlar epoxy with rubber core (KE-R-KE) and carbon epoxy with rubber core (CE-R-CE) in terms of energy absorption and damage mitigation. Modelling and analysis is carried out by making use of commercially available explicit finite element (FE) software. Results reveal that kevlar based sandwich composite outstands the carbon based composite both in terms of energy absorption by 37.7% and the energy absorption ratio of KE-R-KE is 1.36 times more compared to CE-R-CE sandwich composite. The damage study reveals that both the proposed sandwich composites exhibit similar damage mechanism dominated by matrix cracking followed by fiber breakage and delamination. The presence of rubber as core material helps in mitigating the damage to the bottom facesheet. © 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.