Impact Response of Composite UHB Propeller Blades

Resistance capability of composite rectangular plates composed of CFRP, GFRP and their Hybrid were surveyed to investigate their applicability to UHB Propeller blades. Intralamina hybrid of CFRP and GFRP specimen was found promising. Impact testing on the rectangular and flat blade composite specimen supported in cantilever with projectiles made of Teflon was performed to determine the relative resistance performance and also to obtain the time history of strain on the specimens. Without assuming the time history of load, impact analyses using DYNA3D, a FEM program, were made at the same condition as the experiments to investigate the applicability of the impact analysis to simulate impact testing. The comparison of the analysis and the experiment was reasonably good and the applicability of the analysis method to predict responses of composite blades to impact was promised.