Abstract:
Low-velocity impact is a common damage mode for polymer matrix composites during transportation and service, often results in structural damage, performance degradation, and loss of load-bearing capacity, which affects the use of the composites. To address the problem of poor delamination resistance of 2D fiber-reinforced polymer matrix composites under impact loading, binary and ternary Nylon 6 (PA6)-based composites were prepared by melt extrusion combined with hot pressing, and the pendulum impact performance and drop hammer low-velocity impact response of continuous glass fiber (GF), glass beads (GB) and both co-reinforced PA6-based composites were comparatively investigated. The results show that: (1) GF and GB can significantly improve the impact resistance of PA6, and the enhancement effect of GF is significantly higher than that of GB; (2) Impact strength of GB-reinforced PA6-based composites (GB/PA6) showed a trend of increasing and then decreasing with increasing GB incorporation, with the maximum impact strength at 25wt% incorporation; the energy dissipation mechanism of 25wt%GB/PA6 under impact loading was found to be a new mechanism of slip energy dissipation of GB in PA6 matrix, in addition to interfacial debonding and pinning effects; (3) The fibers in GF and GB co-reinforced PA6 composites (GB-GF/PA6) play a major reinforcing role, and both pendulum impact tests and drop impact tests demonstrate a synergistic reinforcing effect; (4) The synergistic reinforcing effect of GF and GB co-reinforcement is due to the increased resistance to type II crack expansion of the co-reinforced composites under impact loading, resulting in the reinforcement of the composite against delamination. Thus, demonstrating that the introduction of an appropriate amount of spherical GB into the matrix is an economical and effective way to improve the resistance of 2D fiber-reinforced polymer matrix composites to low-velocity impact.