Investigation on CFRP-strengthened aluminum, mild steel and stainless-steel tubular members under impact loading

The structural formwork used in aero-plane, vehicle, ship and other structures can be subjected to impact loading when they collide with other objects under explosive event. The effects of impact loading in such vehicular or ship collisions or debris is an important parameter for design considerations. Recently, carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) has been paid high attention for strengthening of metal tubular structural members under impact loading. The objective of this research is to investigate the structural strength and behavior of the CFRP-strengthened aluminum, mild steel and stainless-steel tubular members under impact loading. An extensive test program has been conducted on CFRP-strengthened aluminum, mild steel and stainless-steel hollow beam under impact loading. A total of nine tubular members consisting of one reference member and another eight CFRP strengthen tubular beams were tested in this study under impact loading. The deformation and failure modes were observed under the transverse impact loading. The test results of different sections were also compared with the theoretical value derived from the analytical solution and found the satisfactory results. The results are useful to understand the structural behavior of metal tubular members under low velocity (4 m/s to 6.5 m/s) impact loading. It was observed that the deformation of CFRP strengthened is decreased by 21.42%, 07.61%, and 05.21% for aluminum, stainless steel and mild steel tubular sections under impact loading, respectively. Therefore, it can be concluded that the better performance can be attained by CFRP strengthening of tubular metal member under impact loading.