Comparative study of damage behavior of synthetic and natural fiber-reinforced brittle composite and natural fiber-reinforced flexible composite subjected to low-velocity impact

In the present study, comparative study on the damage behaviour of Glass-Epoxy (GE), Jute-Epoxy (JE) laminates with [0/90]s orientation and Jute-Rubber-Jute (JRJ) sandwich is carried out using ABAQUS/CAE finite element software. The GE, JE laminate and JRJ sandwich with thickness of 2 mm is impacted by a hemispherical shaped impactor at a velocity of 2.5 m/s. The mechanisms in which the brittle laminate gets damaged are analyzed using Hashin’s 2D failure criteria and flexible composites are analysed by ductile damage mechanism. The energy absorbed and the incipient point of each laminate was compared. It was observed from the results that there is no evidence of delamination in JRJ as opposed to GE and JE. The compliant nature of rubber contributes in absorbing more energy and it is slightly higher than GE. Also it was observed that there is no incipient point in JRJ sandwich which means there is no cracking of matrix since rubber is elastic material. Thus the JRJ material can be a better substitute for GE laminate in low velocity applications. The procedure proposed for the analysis in the present study can serve as benchmark method in modelling the impact behaviour of composite structures in further investigations.