Low Velocity Impact Response of Carbon Fiber Composite Laminates with Surface Glass Fibers

The sensitivity of carbon fiber composite laminate to impact damage makes impact damage a significant cause of composite material performance degradation. This study aims to investigate the influence of surface glass fibers on carbon fiber composite laminates under low-velocity impact. A user-defined VUMAT subroutine based on the Puck criterion was employed to implement an intralaminar damage model, while a bilinear cohesive model based on quadratic criterion in Abaqus was used to simulate interlaminar damage. By simulating the low-velocity impact behavior of carbon fiber laminates under three energy levels (2 J, 4 J, and 8 J), the predicted mechanical response results were compared with the experimental results from the literature to validate the rationality of the model. The mechanical response and damage evolution under impact loading were studied by adding glass fibers of different angles and thicknesses on the surface layer of carbon fiber laminate. The results show that increasing the thickness of surface glass fibers can effectively enhance the impact resistance of carbon fiber composite laminates, and a single layer glass fibers at 90° provides better protection than at 45°. The results of this study are instructive for the selection of the thickness as well as the angle of the glass fibers on the surface of carbon fiber composite laminates.