Experimental Study Of High Velocity Impact Damage To Aluminium Alloy And Carbon Fibre

Abstract

This research is devoted to study the comparison of high velocity impact damage towards metal and composite. The material chosen were Aluminium Alloy 7075-T6 and Carbon Fiber. Determining how a material respond to a high velocity impact is vital for material selection for aerospace application. Two types of bullets were used to resemble the real impactor in real flight situation and projected onto the aluminium alloy and carbon fiber with varied pressure. This is to determine damage resistance of thin walled material and to observe damage modes that occur at various pressure and velocity. In order to study the material response towards the impact, a high speed camera was used to capture the movement at 20000 frame per second (fps). After the test, the damage zone was evaluated in two ways which are physical measurement for metal and Non-destructive test for composite. On this basis, the dependencies of the damage area and maximum depth of deformation depending on the shape of the bullet and the energy levels was determined. Post testing show hemispherical bullet does give a severe damage to specimen compare to blunt and the damage area decrease with the increase in impact energy. Physical damage can be clearly observed at both specimen such as, minor crack, delamination and clean hole. On an overall basis, carbon fiber exhibit better impact performance and damage resistance than aluminium alloy.