Low velocity impact behaviour of sandwich composite structures with E-glass/epoxy facesheets and PVC foam

This study presents the impact behaviour of marine sandwich composite beam structures that manufactured by vacuum-assisted resin infusion process (VARIM). The sandwich composite consists of different thicknesses of upper and lower E-glass fibre-reinforced polymer as facesheets and PVC foam as core material. Low velocity impact tests have been conducted to understand the impact response of the sandwich composite by using a drop-weight impact machine with a hemispherical impactor. Square samples with 100 mm X 100 mm side dimensions were subjected to impact machine at five energy levels of 20J, 40J, 60J, 80J and 100J. The impact loadings have been applied to thicker facesheet of the sandwich composite to obtain impact parameters experimentally. Damage type on thicker facesheets and internal parts of PVC foam have been characterized through the contact force - time, contact force - displacement and contact force - energy curves after the tests. Impact failures that occurred on the upper facesheets, core and lower facesheets of the specimens were observed.