Testing of Impact Toughness of Fiber Reinforced Composite Laminates

Fiber reinforced laminated materials are becoming popular in applications involving protection against impact loading. Laminates offer many advantages over metal plates in these applications. Laminates are normally non-ricochet, thus offering greater protection against projectiles. Laminates are also lighter in weight and less expensive as compared to the metal panels. In this study, laminated materials were fabricated from two different types of fibers which included short fibers and random fibers. Epoxy and polyester were used as the resin materials in the production of different types of laminates. Test samples were tested according to the available standards to investigate the impact toughness and ballistic resistance of these laminates. Experimental results showed that random fibers and polyester resin absorbed more energy as compared to short fibers and epoxy resin, respectively. In addition to higher impact resistance, the random fibers and polyester resin are cheaper, readily available and easy to manufacture. Thus laminates prepared from random fibers and polyester resin are better suited than the short fiber and epoxy based laminates for ballistic resistant role against impact loading.