Experimental and Numerical Investigation of Long Fibre Thermoplastic Composite Subjected to Impact

Abstract

The present study concerns with the experimental and analytical investigation of long fibre thermoplastic composite beam subjected to impact loading. Nylon 6 beam specimens are used in this report. The specimens were subjected to a low velocity impact, drop weight test rig and a number of empirical relations and observations were obtained which relate the deformation of a specimen to the impact energy, percentage glass reinforcement (20%, 40%, 50%) and temperature (23oC). Three different glass fiber reinforcements have been tested and compared with the additional finite element results. A three-dimensional (3D) finite element analysis (ABAQUS/Explicit) has been employed to determine the deformation and failure of Nylon 6. A good agreement between finite element results and experimental findings was found.