This study concerns compression failure of impacted Non-Crimp Fabric (NCF) composite laminates. Panels with a barely visible impact damage (BVID) have been studied under compression after impact (CAI) conditions. Monolithic laminates have been tested in CAI and the failure mechanisms are identified and discussed. The study on monolithic laminates constitutes a complement to a previous study on NCF laminate face sheets of sandwich panels in a naval application. The results from the present study confirm the findings from the study on sandwich skins; the mechanism controlling failure of CAI loaded NCF laminates is formation of kink bands. It is also found that kink bands develop at loads substantially lower than the load at panel failure. The results also indicate that the typical NCF heterogeneous structure, with fibre bundles separated with resin rich regions and fibre waviness, prevent kink bands from growing unstable immediately after initiation.
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