Experimental Investigation on the Effect of Fixed L-ribs to the Damage Behavior of Integrated Composite T-joint Subject to Low Velocity Impact

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of fixed L-ribs on the damage behavior of integrated composite T-joints subject to low velocity impact. Experimental test is performed on a vertical drop-weight testing device with two different impact energies. Detailed inspection by visual and ultrasonic C-scan reveals that different impact energies result in different damage types and shapes. Experimental results show that without fixed L-ribs the impact caused an elliptical damage around the impact point at the impact energy of 4.45 J/mm and a trumpet delamination at the impact energy of 8.90 J/mm. In comparison, the impact only caused serious damage around the impact point without delamination at the impact energy of 8.90 J/mm with fixed L-ribs. This experimental study has demonstrated that fixing the L-ribs is an effective way to prevent the delamination of the integrated composite T-joint subject to low velocity impact.