Blunt Object Impact Damage Response of Long FiberThermoplastic (LFT) Composites

摘要

The use of thermoplastic composites has steadily increased in the transportation sector includingrnmass transit and automotive industry as a result of the progress made in new materials andrnprocessing technologies. Long fiber thermoplastics (LFT) find increasing use in the automotivernsector. The commonly used matrices are polypropylene (PP) and nylon with varying percentage ofrnglass fiber for strength. As many of these thermoplastic materials will find applications in structuralrnmembers, their susceptibility to blunt object impacts such as from flying debris, stones/rocks, toolrndrops is a matter of great concern, and one that is least studied. Traditional impact data forrnthermoplastics relies upon notched-izod impact, which does not correlate to the common impactrnthreats. In the present work the blunt object impact (BOI) damage resistance of extrusioncompressionrnmolded LFT PP for its damage and energy absorption characteristics by anrnintermediate velocity gas-gun. Flat-end and conical-end projectiles have been considered. The fibermatrixrninteraction and microstructure of the LFT plaques were inspected by scanning electronrnmicroscopy (SEM).