Abstract:
The integrated lightweight structures composed by fiber composite and metal material exhibit excellent impact resistance and has been applied in fields such as aerospace successfully. To further enhance the impact resistance and damage tolerance of hybrid structures under multiple impacts, the specimens of carbon fiber composite-metal hybrid sandwich structure were manufactured by incorporating metal layers between carbon fiber layers. Then the impact experiments were conducted under different impact energies and numbers. Beyond that, the CT non-destructive scanning analysis of the impacted specimens were also conducted. The post-impact residual compressive strength of the structures was investigated, while the residual load-bearing capacity and damage tolerance of the structure were also evaluated by the dimensionless coefficient. The results illustrate that the influences of the single impact at different energies on the residual compressive strength is relatively small, When the impact energy is 60 J, the residual compressive strength is reduced by 5.4%, which due to the inhibitory effect of the metal layer on crack propagation. As for the case of multiple impacts, the residual compressive strength of the composite-metal hybrid sandwich structure exhibits an initial damage accumulation phenomenon. In multiple impacts at 10 J, when the total impact energy reaches 100 J, the residual compressive strength begins to decrease significantly, dropping by 30.8%. In multiple impacts at 20 J, when the total impact energy reaches 80 J, the residual compressive strength decreases by 12.7%. The results show that multiple impacts with higher energy are more likely to cause debonding and delamination between the fiber layers and metal layers of the structure. And this carbon fiber composite-metal hybrid sandwich structure has extensive application potential in the design of lightweight and reliable load-bearing structures in the future.