Experimental investigation of low velocity impact on textile cellular composite with different energy construction

Abstract

Cellular composite, with an array of regular hexagonal cells in the cross section, is a type of textile composites having the advantage of being light weight and energy absorbent over the solid composite materials. However, when it is under the same energy level of low velocity impact with different tup mass and velocity, its behavior is yet unknown. In the experiment, four groups of samples, with twelve geometrical variants have been systematically created for the impact testing. The impact test is running in two categories with one type of low velocity impact with initial velocity of 5.5 m/s by the tup mass of 0.55 kg, and another testing under the similar impact energy but with a lower initial velocity around 2.0 m/s with heavier tup mass of 4.52 kg. The impact energies in the above cases are very similar about 8.5 J, which indicates that the impact energy is the same while the energy construction is different. After the test, it is found that composite with medium cell size has more stable mechanical performances under various exposed impact conditions. It is also concluded that composites with big cell size are much easier to be destroyed under heavier impact tup, therefore, under condition of more critical loading force, it is necessary to find a way to enhance the big cell sized composites’ wall material in order to strengthen their structure performances. The results of this work provide a reference for the researchers who are kneeing to investigate the impact mechanism of textile cellular composites.