Damage tolerance of glass mat/epoxy laminates hybridized with flexible resin under static and impact loading

This study deals with the impact property and damage tolerance of matrix hybrid composite laminates with different laminate constitution. The matrix hybrid composite laminates consisted of the laminae with a conventional epoxy resin and the laminae with a flexible epoxy resin modified from the conventional resin to avoid the interlaminar delamination. The impact energy absorption ratio greatly depended on the matrix resin placed at the impact face. The energy absorption was almost constant if the conventional resin was placed at the impact surface layer, while it increased exponentially with the increasing fraction of the flexible resin if the flexible resin was placed at the impact face. The impact energy was absorbed by the damage development and propagation in the laminate with conventional resin laminae as the impacted face, while it was absorbed by both the recoverable deformation of the flexible resin and the damage propagation in the laminate with flexible resin laminae as the impacted face.