Abstract
This paper presents experimental characterization of a piercing process of CFRP thin laminates. Recently, application of CFRP is expected to expand to automobiles and mobile electronics. Hence, the present study was carried out to establish a method for a short-time and low-cost piercing process of thin CFRP laminates. A CFRP plate was pierced under various conditions by using a punch drived by a hydraulic testing machine. Surface and internal damages of the CFRP plates were observed by using optical microscopy, stereomicroscope and together with soft X-ray analysis. A damage process was then discussed on the basis of the experimental result. Next, the influence of clearance and shape of a punch on the damage in the specimen was examined to optimize clearance. Especially, the effect of clearance and shape of a punch on delamination in cross-ply laminates was investigated.
