Direct observation on supersonic microprojectile penetration of carbon fiber composites with ultrafast synchrotron X-ray phase contrast imaging

B. X. Bie, S. Chen, T. Sun, K. Fezzaa, J. Y. Huang*, S. N. Luo*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

12 Scopus citations

Abstract

High-speed penetration into carbon fiber composites is of fundamental importance to materials science and impact engineering, but research along this line suffers considerably from the lack of direct experimental observations. Here we investigate such penetration dynamics of a unidirectional carbon fiber reinforced epoxy (UCFRE) composite, with a combination of in situ, ultrafast, synchrotron phase contrast imaging and finite element (FE) analysis. The experiments yield the first direct observation on projectile trajectories and fiber-scale deformation and damage in the UCFRE composites during supersonic microprojectile penetration, for different fiber orientations (0−90 from the impact direction) and projectile velocities 600−850m.s-1, at unprecedented temporal (∼100 ps) and spatial (5 μm) resolutions. The maximum penetration depth decreases with increasing fiber orientation angles, as a result of anisotropic damage evolution in the composite sample. Strain localizations are prone to develop along a direction perpendicular to the fiber orientation, while the damage or cavity region, along the fiber direction. FE modeling with a three-dimensional Hashin criterion yields consistent projectile trajectory and cavity morphology with the experimental results. With increasing fiber orientation angles, damage analyses show a transition in the damage mode from fiber compression to matrix compression damage, in line with the increasing maximum penetration depth.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)781-790
Number of pages10
JournalCarbon
Volume172
DOIs
StatePublished - Feb 2021

Funding

This work was sponsored in part by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant Nos. 11627901 and 11802252 ) and the Science and Technology Program of Sichuan Province (grant No. 2020YFG0415 ). Use of the Advanced Photon Source, an Office of Science User Facility operated for the US Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science by Argonne National Laboratory , was supported by the US DOE under Contract No. DE-AC02-06CH11357 .

Keywords

  • Carbon fiber reinforced epoxy composite
  • FE modeling
  • High-speed penetration
  • Impact damage
  • X-ray imaging

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Chemistry
  • General Materials Science

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