The Effects of Temperature and Thermal Stresses on Impact Damage in Laminated Composites

The aim of this study is to investigate the effects of temperature and thermal residual stresses on the impact behavior and damage of unidirectional glass/epoxy laminated composites. To this end, thermal stress analyses of the laminates with lay-ups [90/0/0/90]s, [90/0/45/45]s, [0/90/45/-45]s were carried out under temperatures of 20, 90 and -50 °C by using ANSYS software. Damage parameters proposed by Hou et al. [13] were used for failure analyses. Also, the impact tests on the laminated composites were performed at the impact energies ranging from 5 J to 55 J under the mentioned temperatures. The specific energy values and impact parameters were obtained and compared for each type of specimens and temperatures. The results obtained from both thermal stress analyses and impact tests indicated that the contribution of thermal stresses to impact damage increases with decreasing temperature and therefore, the stresses at low temperatures have a significant effect on the impact damage and parameters of unidirectional laminated composites.