Impact response of woven glass-fabric composites - II. Effect of temperature

Instrumented impact tests and compression-after-impact (CAI) tests have been used to evaluate the effect of temperature on the low-velocity impact response of vinylester-matrix composites reinforced with woven E-glass fabric. It is shown that the extent of damage and the residual properties of the laminates vary with fibre surface treatment and impact test temperature. The damage area increases with increasing temperature and impact energy. Both the threshold impact energy and the threshold damage width, which are obtained from a simple residual-strength model, in general decrease with increasing temperature. All these observations indicate reduced impact-damage resistance and damage tolerance of the laminates at elevated temperatures.