Sathiyaraj Chinnasamy
The study of composite materials offers engineers and manufacturers essential insights into understanding failure criteria, initial failure onset, and damage propagation within laminates. This research delves into examining the growth of impact-induced damage and identifying Hertz failure thresholds and maximum force limits across three distinct composite types. Through impact testing, it is observed that the strength of composite materials significantly rises under dynamic loading conditions compared to static loading scenarios, underscoring the material’s sensitivity to strain rate.Composite materials play a crucial role in providing effective ballistic protection as part of armor solutions. These materials encounter impact loads of varying energy levels depending on their specific application. Ensuring adequate protection involves a meticulous design and manufacturing process capable of withstanding low-energy impacts, such as those from dropped tools during operational and maintenance tasks, intermediate-energy impacts caused by external materials striking the surface, and high-energy impacts from weapons.Fiber-reinforced composite materials find extensive utilization across aviation, marine, and land platforms, owing to their remarkable specific strength, weight reduction benefits, and manufacturing convenience. These materials hold pivotal roles in the aerospace and defense sectors as well. Polyester resins serve as a cost-effective and user-friendly alternative to epoxy resins in many fiberglass applications. This study focuses on exploring the low-velocity impact behavior of E-Glass composites, which are more economically viable and widely produced compared to armed composites. The research examines three distinct test samples to analyze the impact characteristics of these materials.