Abstract
In the present paper, damage development within carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP) laminates and CFRP/Al honeycomb core sandwich panels by impact loading was evaluated, and change in material properties due to the damage development was investigated. Falling weight impact tests, cross section observation and 3-point bending tests were carried out. As results, it is obtained that reduction rate of bending elastic modulus in a laminate is lower than that in an upper face-sheet of the sandwich panel, and difference in the reduction rate between them becomes maximum at 5.1J. As a result of investigating the relationship between reduction in bending elastic modulus and internal damage development, the reduction is caused by delamination mainly. Since total length of cracks in CFRP/Al core sandwich panels is smaller than that in laminates, the sandwich panels have high impact tolerance.
