Effects of fibre/matrix adhesion on carbon-fibre-reinforced metal laminates—II. impact behaviour

Quasi-static, low-hanging and high-velocity impact tests have been conducted in order to study the effect of fibre/matrix adhesion on the impact properties of fibre-reinforced metal laminates. Differences in fibre/matrix adhesion were achieved by using treated or untreated carbon fibres in an epoxy resin system. Chemical removal of the aluminium layers and a sectioning technique were applied to examine and characterize the impact damage in the laminates. The results show that the laminates with the weaker fibre/matrix adhesion exhibit larger damage zones, although the back face crack length and permanent indentation after impact are smaller for a given impact energy. Residual tensile strength after impact is also higher for the untreated fibre laminates due to increased fibre/matrix splitting in the composite layer.