Residual flexural strength after impact for textile carbon fiber reinforced polycarbonate laminates

This study prepared textile carbon fiber reinforced polycarbonate laminates of three kinds molded with different conditions and carbon fiber reinforced epoxy laminates consisting of the same carbon fiber textile. Drop-weight impact tests were conducted for these four laminates with three levels of impact energies. The residual flexural strengths were measured after impact. Results show that the residual flexural strengths for all laminates decrease clearly with increasing impact energy. The flexural strengths of these laminates without impact damage have mutually different values. Furthermore, the laminates exhibit a decreasing ratio of residual flexural strength by impact damage with mutually differing values. The reasons were examined through observations conducted using ultrasonic flaw detection and digital microscope.