Effect of geometry of dropped-off edges on the impact response of woven composite laminate with ply drops

Many structural components made from composite materials have taper in their design. To achieve this taper, more plies have to be internally dropped along the length of the laminate. This study focuses on understanding the impact response of the composite laminates with ply drop. To this end, several plain woven glass/epoxy composite test specimens with different ply drop geometry (inclined, V-shaped, inverted V-shaped and straight) are prepared by hand lay-up process and the response of these laminates under impact loading (Drop weight impact) is studied. Impact energy is chosen as 12J which is equivalent to bird (sparrow) hit with a relative velocity of 27 m/sec. Definitive conclusions drawn from the observations are presented.