Jtam.dvi JOURNAL OF THEORETICAL AND APPLIED MECHANICS 49, 3, pp. 841-857, Warsaw 2011 LOW-VELOCITY IMPACT CHARACTERISTICS OF COMPOSITE PLATES WITH SHAPE MEMORY ALLOY WIRES Mi-Sun Rim, Eun-Ho Kim, In Lee KAIST, Department of Aerospace Engineering, Daejeon, Korea e-mail: inlee@kaist.ac.kr Ik-Hyeon Choi, Seok-Min Ahn Korea Aerospace Research Institute, Aeronautics Technology Division, Daejeon, Korea Kyo-Nam Koo University of Ulsan, Department of Aerospace Engineering, Ulsan, Korea Jae-Sung Bae, Jin-Ho Roh Korea Aerospace University, School of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering, Geonggi-do, Korea To investigate impact characteristics of shapememory alloy hybrid com- posites (SMAHC), several experiments were performed. Tensile tests of shapememory alloy (SMA)wireswere carriedout to investigate thermo- mechanical properties, and low-velocity impact tests of SMAHC plates and conventional composite plates without SMAs at the critical ener- gy level. low-velocity impact tests of several types of composite plates, including composite plates with embedded SMAs/Fe/Al wires and co- nventional compositeplates,werealsodone.Results of these experiments show that embedding SMAs in a composite plate can improve the im- pact resistance. Lastly, low-velocity impact tests of SMAHC plates with SMA wires embedded at different positions through the thickness we- re performed in an effort to improve the impact resistance. Embedding SMA wires at a lower position in the composite plates was the most effective for improving the impact resistance. Key words: shape memory alloy, SMAHC, composite, low-velocity im- pact, impact resistance 1. Introduction Composite materials which are reinforced with fibers have many advantages due to their high specific strength and specific stiffness. They can be fabrica- ted to optimize the strength and stiffness by changing fabrication parameters 842 M.-S. Rim et al. such as the stacking sequence and the number of plies of hybrid materials. Due to these advantages, they are widely used in such as the aviation and aerospace fields, especially for weight savings. However, composite materials are weak against damage caused by impact loading owing to their low tough- ness.Therefore, impact resistance and impact damage are important issues for the safety of composite structures. Recently, several studies were performed for low and high velocity impact of composite structures (Ahn et al., 2010; Nguyen et al., 2010; Iannucci, 2006). Damage of composite materials can take complicate forms, includingmatrix cracking, delamination, fiber breakage and other types. Especially, thedamage due to low velocity impact is often difficult to be observed because it typically appears at the side opposite to where the impact took place or inside the composite structure, both of which can lead to unexpected problems. Therefore, research on the topic of improving and predicting impact damage is necessary. Such efforts can be considered as a method of improving impact resistance to prevent sudden problems, and one recent direction of this research involves embedding some materials of high toughness into composite materials to absorb the impact energy. Recently, smart structures which are combined with smartmaterials, such as piezoelectric materials (Qiu and Ji, 2010), shape memory alloys (SMAs), electrostructive/magnetostructive materials ER/MR fluids and etc., have be- ing researched because of their attractive characteristics. SMAs have been a topic of research as an embedded material (Pain and Rogers, 1994). Because thephase of SMAs changes according to changes in the temperature or applied load, SMAshave several remarkable properties, suchas large failure strain, lar- ge failure stress shapememory effect, and superelasticity. The shapememory effect (SME) is that when the load is applied and then removed, the residual strain can be fully recovered by raising the temperature. Consequently, the deformed SMAs recover their original shape. Another characteristic is super- elasticity (SE) that SMAs achieve a large amount of strain upon loading, and they fully recover via a hysteresis loop during at above the austenite finish temperature, which is also the phase transformation temperature (Brinson, 1993). Due to superelasticity and the large failure strain, SMAs can absorb and dissipate a large amount of strain energy (Boller et al., 2001). When an impact load is applied to composite structures and causes da- mage, a large amount of deformation is induced locally around the damaged region. SMAs embedded in this region can resist the impact load by absorbing and dissipating the large strain energy with large deformation after the fa- ilure of stiff composite materials. Therefore, embedding SMAs into composite structures can improve the perforation resistance of fiber-reinforced lamina- Low-velocity impact characteristics of composite plates... 843 ted composite structures. Research in this area has been done since 1990’s. However, experimental studies are still insufficient, so additional experimental studies are necessary. In this paper, several experiments were performed to confirm the effects of embedding SMAs on impact characteristics of shape memory alloy hybrid composite (SMAHC) plates. First, tensile tests of SMAwires were performed to investigate characteristics andmaterial properties of SMAs.A specific type of SMAwires was chosen according to results of tensile tests, and these wires were embedded into composite plates to fabricate SMAHC plates. Next, im- pact tests of SMAHCplates alongwith conventional composite plates without SMA wires were performed at the critical energy level, where the energy ini- tiates catastrophic damage. To compare the effects of embedding SMA wires with other embedded metal wires, composite plates with embedded iron (Fe) and aluminum (Al) wires were also tested. Lastly, impact tests of composite plates with different embedded positions of SMAwires through the thickness direction were done. 2. Tensile tests of SMA wires To choose the proper SMA wires to improve impact resistance of compo- site plates, characteristics of SMA wires should be investigated. Therefore, tensile tests of two types of SMA wires (Nitinol Devices & Components), SM495 (Ni54.5wt%) and SE508 (Ni55.8wt%), were done at various tempera- tures (Kang et al., 2010). Thermo-mechanical properties investigated by these tests are presented in Table 1. SMA wires showed large failure strain that Table 1.Mechanical Properties of SMAWires SM495 (Ni54.5wt%) SE508 (Ni55.8wt%) Martensite Austenite Martensite Austenite Transfer coefficient 7.1MPa/◦C 6.7MPa/◦C 4.6MPa/◦C 6.4MPa/◦C Elastic modulus 13.8GPa 52.8GPa 17.0GPa 40.1GPa Failure stress 1179MPa 1434MPa Failure strain 14.9% 14.4% exceeded 14%. This level is very high compared to other materials. The ela- stic modulus of austenite was found to be greater than that of martensite. At room temperature (20◦C), SE508 is stiffer than SM495 because SE508 has 844 M.-S. Rim et al. austenite and SM495 hasmartensite. Moreover, SE508 shows superelastic be- havior at room temperature (Fig.1). Superelasticity is effective for absorbing and dissipating large amounts of strain energy. Impact tests were performed at room temperature, therefore SE508 was chosen as an embedding material for reinforcing composite materials under low-velocity impact. Fig. 1. Stress-strain behavior at room temperature (20◦C); (a) SM495 (Ni54.5wt%), (b) SE508 (Ni55.8wt%) 3. low-velocity impact tests Several low-velocity impact tests were performed to confirm the effects of embedding SMA wires into composite plates and to investigate the impact characteristics of these plates. 3.1. low-velocity impact tests at the critical energy level low-velocity impact tests of SMAHC plates and conventional composite plates without SMA wires were performed at the critical energy level to de- termine the effect of embedding SMAwires into composite plates. 3.1.1. Conditions and procedure Conventional composite plates without embedded SMA wires were fa- bricated with graphite/epoxy prepreg CU-125NS (Hankuk Carbon Co.) and SMAHC plates were fabricated by embedding SMA wires (SE508) into co- nventional composite plates. Table 2 presents the mechanical properties of CU-125NS (Kim et al., 2004). Low-velocity impact characteristics of composite plates... 845 Table 2.Mechanical Properties of CU-125NS (Kim et al., 2004) Longitudinal modulus 135.4GPa Shear modulus 4.8GPa Transverse modulus 9.6GPa Poisson’s ratio 0.31 Two impact tests were performed. Specimens were 100mm by 100mm square plates and 20mm width along the edges was used to clamp the speci- men. In the first case, the stacking sequence of conventional composite plates was [90◦/0◦]3S. To fabricate SMAHC plates, SMA wires were aligned along the center of the plate, covering a width of 20mm, with a volume fraction of 2.24%. When SMA wires are embedded in composite materials, the lum- ping resin creates weak regions that cause delamination (Tsoi et al., 2003). To prevent this, SMA wires were aligned along the fiber direction and em- bedded in the center layer of the conventional composite plate between 0◦ plies. The thickness of specimens was 1.37mm. In the second case, the stac- king sequence of the conventional composite plates was [45◦/−45◦/90◦/0◦]S and the volume fraction of SMAHC plates was 7.57%. The thickness of specimens was 0.85mm. The configurations of specimens are presented in Fig.2. Fig. 2. Configurations of specimens; (a) conventional composite plate, (b) SMAHC plate, (c) specimen and jig, (d) actual configurations of specimens These low-velocity impact tests were done at room temperature (20◦C). A weight-drop-type universal impact testing machine was used, and a hemi- spherical steel impactor with a diameter of 15.35mm and a mass of 2.38kg was dropped to make an impact into the center of the plate-type specimen. 846 M.-S. Rim et al. the impact load was applied at the critical impact energy level. The critical impact energy is the energy level at which point catastrophic damage is ini- tiated. It was found by increasing the incident energy from a low energy level. The incident impact energy is defined by the following equation E =mgh (3.1) Here, E is the incident impact energy,m is themass of the impactor, and g is the acceleration of gravity, h is the height of the impactor. Thus, adjustment of the incident impact energy level is possible by changing the height (h). The critical impact energies were investigated by repeated tests with increasing h from 0.1m until the height where the catastrophic damage is initiated. They were determined to be 20J in the first case and 7J in the second case. There- fore, these values were used as the incident impact energy levels. 3.1.2. Results and discussions In the first case at incident impact energy of 20J, specimens fractured at 3-4ms, after the contact force suddenly decreased. There was no significant difference of the maximum contact force before the sudden decrease between conventional composite plates and SMAHC plates. Therefore, the embedded wires hadno effect on that. Instead, the shape andmaterial of the impactor or the condition of the specific impact surface affected this value. However, after a fracture occurred, it was found that the contact force of SMAHCplates was greater than that of conventional composite plates. It means that SMAHC plates resisted a greater amount of the impact load than conventional compo- site plates because SMAwires embedded in the composite plates resist much impact load after fracture of thr graphite/epoxy material and they prevent the damage propagation of composite plates (Fig.3a). As shown in Fig.4, the SMAHCplate was not penetratedwhile the conventional composite plate was at the critical energy level. The impact damage of SMAHCplate at the higher impact energy than critical energy level is shown in Fig.5. The compositema- terial was totally fractured, however, the SMA wires in the composite plate were not fractured and sustained the impact load after the fracture of the composite materials. When the impact load is applied to the composite plate it absorbs the impact energy by elastic deformation or plastic deformation or damage. The absorbed energy by the elastic deformation of the composite platewas reduced by bouncing the impactor. The other energy was dissipated by plastic defor- mation and damage. The plastic deformation of composite materials is hardly caused because of their low toughness. Therefore in these experiments, the Low-velocity impact characteristics of composite plates... 847 Fig. 3. Results of low-velocity impact tests at critical impact energy (20J); (a) contact force, (b) absorbed energy, (c) deflection Fig. 4. Specimens after low-velocity impact tests (20J); (a) conventional composite plate, (b) SMAHC plate amount of energy causing the damage is much greater than that of the energy causing plastic deformation and almost of the remained absorbed energy con- tribute to the damagewhen the response of impact is completed. As presented in Fig.3b, the absorbed energy of conventional composite plates was hardly reduced, and itmeans almost of the incident impact energy caused damage. In contrast to conventional composite plates, SMA wires absorbed a large amo- unt of impact energy showing super-elastic behavior. This recovery allowed 848 M.-S. Rim et al. Fig. 5. Impact damage of SMAHC plate SMAHC plates to bounce the impactor. As a result, the energy causing the damage was reduced, as was the damage to SMAHC plates. Based on deflection diagrams (Fig.3c), SMAHC plates deflected less than conventional composite plates, but this amount was not significant. However, the deflection of SMAHC plates recovered much more than it did with co- nventional plates, nearly recovering to its original shape. This large recovered deflection of SMAHC plates was due to small damage regions compared with conventional composite plates and the recovery stress generated by SMA wi- res. SMAwires have the large failure strain up to 14% and around 10% of the strain can be recovered generating a large recovery stress. Therefore, if the local strain at the damaged region is not reached to the failure strain, SMA wire will resist the impact load and generate the large recovery stress. The results of these tests are presented in Table 3. Table 3.Results of low-velocity impact tests (20J) Conventional SMAHC platecomposite plate Max. contact force 4.36kN 4.40kN Max. contact force after incipient 1.47kN 3.80kN damage occurs Reduced energy 0.59J (2.86%) 2.75J (13.40%) Deflection Maximum 12.51mm 10.04mm Recovery 0.84mm (6.74%) 9.02mm (89.84%) Low-velocity impact characteristics of composite plates... 849 In the second case, specimens fractured at the critical impact energy of 7J. Embedding a small amount of SMAwires into the composite plate did not muchaffect themaximumcontact force.However, the contact force of SMAHC plates after fracture was greater, reduced energy was greater, deflection was smaller and recovered deflectionwas greater than those of conventional compo- site plates (Fig.6). As Fig.7 shows, conventional composite plates were dama- gedmore thanSMAHCplates but it is difficult to compare the damage extent. Therefore C-scan was additionally performed to investigate the damage area. Comparing thefigures ofC-scan, it is easier to confirmthe smaller damagearea of SMAHCplate (Fig.8).Thedamagearea of the conventional composite plate was 1.68 times bigger than that of SMAHCplates. The results are presented in Table 4. Fig. 6. Results of low-velocity impact tests at critical impact rnergy (7J); (a) contact force, (b) absorbed energy, (c) deflection Compared to conventional composite plates, for these reasons, embedding SMAwires can improve the impact resistance of composite materials. 850 M.-S. Rim et al. Fig. 7. Specimens after low-velocity impact tests (7J); (a) conventional composite plate, (b) SMAHC plate Fig. 8. C-scan results of specimens (7J); (a) figure of damage area, (b) damage area Table 4.Results of low-velocity impact tests (7J) Conventional SMAHC platecomposite plate Max. contact force 2.70kN 2.48kN Max. contact force after incipient 1.00kN 1.60kN damage occurs Reduced energy 0.32J (4.38%) 1.17J (16.04%) Deflection Maximum 7.46mm 7.29mm Recovery 3.39mm (45.48%) 6.64mm (91.04%) Damage area 1403.62mm2 836.93mm2 3.2. low-velocity impact tests with different embedded materials low-velocity impact tests of SMAHCplates, conventional composite plates, and composite plates with embedded iron (Fe) or aluminum (Al) wires were performedto compare the effects of embeddingSMAwires andothermaterials. Low-velocity impact characteristics of composite plates... 851 3.2.1. Conditions and procedure These tests were performed at room temperature, and the incident impact energy was 10J, which is over the critical energy. The same equipment used in the previous impact tests was used here as well. The stacking sequence of the conventional composite plates was [45◦/ −45◦/90◦/0◦]S. SMAwires (SE508) andpure iron (Fe) or aluminum(Al)wires 0.2mm in diameter were embedded into conventional composite plates. The wires were embedded using the same stacking sequence as used in the second case in the previous impact tests. Therefore, the volume fraction and thickness were also identical to those of the previous specimens. 3.2.2. Results and discussions All specimens fractured at 2-3ms, after the contact force was suddenly decreased, similar to the results of the previous impact tests. The sustainable force after a fracture occurred was slightly different depending on the type of specimen. Conventional composite plates and composite plates with embed- ded Fe/Al wires showed a similar tendency in terms of the contact force after the fracture occurred. This shows that embedding Fe/Al wires into a com- posite plate does not improve the impact resistance, whereas SMAHC plates could withstand more contact force than the other types of specimens after the damage occurred. Based on the absorbed energy diagrams, conventional composite plates and composite plates with embedded Fe/Al wires show a si- milar tendency and almost amount of the incident impact energy was used to cause damage. On the other hand, SMAHCplates absorbed a large amount of the impact energy and then recovered. Hence, the energy causing damagewas decreased. Deflections of conventional composite plates and composite plates with embedded Fe/Al wires increased continuously as they were penetrated. In contrast, SMAHC plates deflected less and recovered more than the other specimens. It was possible to confirm the damage of specimens because co- nventional composite plates and composite plates with embedded Fe/Al wires were penetrated, whereas SMAHC plates did not. To compare the damage area of themmore quantitatively, C-scan was done. However, the average va- lue of the damage area of SMAHCplateswere smaller than in other specimens (Fig.9, Table 5). Based on contact force, absorbed energy, deflection and damage area, em- bedding SMA wires is more effective than using other materials such as iron (Fe) and aluminum (Al) to improve the impact resistance of composite mate- rials. 852 M.-S. Rim et al. Fig. 9. Results of low-velocity impact tests for different embeddedmaterials; (a) contact force, (b) absorbed energy, (c) deflection, (d) damage area Table 5.Results of low-velocity impact tests for different embeddedmaterials Convent. composite SMAHC Fe Al plate plate (penetrated) (penetrated) (penetrated) Max. contact force 2.89kN 2.65kN 2.76kN 2.61kN Max. contact force after incipient 0.85kN 1.82kN 1.04kN 1.09kN damage occurs Reduced energy 0.37J 0.85J 0.27J 0.35J (3.68%) (8.27%) (2.79%) (3.48%) Deflection Maxim. 13.78mm 9.26mm 13.02mm 13.26mm Recovery 5.78mm (62.38%) Damage area 1975.95mm2 1580.33mm2 1835.60mm2 1833.68mm2 Low-velocity impact characteristics of composite plates... 853 3.3. Low-velocity impact tests for different position of embedded SMA wires To confirm the effect of embedding position and to improve impact resi- stance more effectively by changing the position, several types of specimens with different embedded wires positions were fabricated and low-velocity im- pact tests were performed. 3.3.1. Conditions and procedure These impact tests were done at room temperature, and the incident im- pact energywas the critical one, 18J.The sameequipmentused in theprevious impact tests was also used here. The stacking sequencewas [90◦/0◦2/90 ◦ 2/0 ◦]S, andwires were embedded at different positions in the thickness direction. They were placed in the center layer and off from the center layer at either 1/6 or 5/6 of the distance through the thickness of the plate (Fig.10). SMAwires were embedded parallel to the fiberdirection between the 0◦ plies at the center regionwith awidth of 20mm. The thickness was 1.436mm and the volume fraction was 4.50%. Fig. 10. Different positions in the thickness direction; (a) 1/6 from the top surface, (b) 3/6 from the top surface, (c) 5/6 from the top surface 3.3.2. Results and discussions After fracturing, the contact force of SMAHCplates with embedded SMA wires in theupper layer (1/6) and the center layer (3/6) showed similar results. However, SMAHC plates with embedded SMA wires in the lower layer (5/6) sustained more contact force than the other specimens. The absorbed energy of plates with embedded SMAwires in the lower layer (5/6) showed a greater 854 M.-S. Rim et al. decrease compared to the others. This indicates that the absorbed energy causing damage was reduced by embedding SMAwires in the lower layer and it made the damage smaller. The deflection diagram also shows the effect of the embedding position. After the impact load was applied, the plates with SMAwires embedded in the lower layer (5/6) deflected less and recoveredmore than the other specimens. These results, based on the contact force, absorbed energy and deflection, demonstrate that embedding SMA wires at a lower position near the back face can improve the impact resistancemore efficiently compared to other positions.When an impact load is applied to specimen, the specimen is bent and the most tensile deformation is occurred at the bottom of that. SMAwires can absorb the impact energymost effectively when large deformation is occurred, therefore the embedded wires near from the bottom absorb the impact energy most effectively. Results of tests are presented in Fig.11 and Table 6. Fig. 11. Results of low-velocity impact tests for different position of embedded SMA wires; (a) contact force, (b) absorbed energy, (c) deflection Low-velocity impact characteristics of composite plates... 855 Table6.Resultsof low-velocity impact tests fordifferentpositionof embedded SMAwires 1/6 from the 3/6 from the 5/6 from the top surface top surface top surface Max. contact force 3.64kN 3.34kN 3.89kN Reduced energy 0.24J (1.27%) 0.03J (0.16%) 1.49J (7.93%) Deflection Maximum 11.77mm 12.85mm 10.34mm Recovery 1.04mm 0.14mm 4.44mm (8.84%) (1.09%) (42.94%) 4. Conclusions Tensile tests of SMA wires were performed to investigate the characteristics of SMAs as a preliminary test to improve the impact resistance. SMA wires have large failure strain and stress with superelasticity. Several low-velocity impact tests were then performed to assess the effects of embedding SMA wires and to improve impact resistance using the energy absorbing ability of SMAs due to superelasticity of this material. In the first test, the effects of embedding SMA wires were confirmed by comparing a SMAHC plate with a conventional plate using two types of specimens at the critical impact energy level. The effect of the type of embedded materials, in this case none, SMAs, iron (Fe), aluminum (Al), was confirmed in the second test. SMAHC plates sustained contact force better and absorbed less energy causing damage than the other specimens after the damage occurred. It was also found that the deflection was less and the recovery was greater compared to the other specimens. These results demonstrate that embedding SMAs can improve the impact resistance of composite materials. In the third test, specimens with embedded SMA wires at different positions, 1/6, 3/6 and 5/6, were tested to investigate effects of the embedding position. The results showed that embedding SMA wires at a lower position near the back face of plates can improve the impact resistance more effectively compared to other positions. Through several tests, the superiority of SMAs was demonstrated to im- prove the weak impact resistance of a composite material. 856 M.-S. Rim et al. Acknowledgements This work was supported by the KARI-University Partnership Program. This workwas also partly supported by theWCU (WorldClass University) program thro- ugh the National Research Foundation of Korea funded by Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (R31-2008-000-10045-0) and the second stage of the Brain Korea 21 Project in 2011. References 1. Ahn J.-H., Nguyen K.-H., Park Y.-B., Kweon J.-H., Choi J.-H., 2010, Anumerical study of the high-velocity impact response of a composite laminate using LS-DYNA, International Journal of Aeronautical and Space Science, 11, 3, 221-226 2. 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Standard Test Methods for Tension Testing of Nickel-Titanium Superelastic Materials,ASTM International, ASTMF2516-07 11. Tsoi K.A., Stalmans R., Schrooten J., Wevers M., Mai Y.W., 2003, Impact damagebehaviourof shapememoryalloy composites,Materials Science and Engineering, 342, 1/2, 207-215 Niskoprędkościowe charakterystyki uderzeniowe płyt kompozytowych zawierających włókna ze stopów z pamięcią kształtu Streszczenie Do analizy charakterystyk uderzeniowych hybrydowych kompozytów SMAHC zwierającychwłóknaSMAze stopówwykazujących efekt pamięci kształtu przeprowa- dzono szereg badań eksperymentalnych. Przeprowadzono próby na rozciąganie włó- kien SMAwcelu zbadania ichwłaściwości termomechanicznychorazniskoprędkościo- we testy uderzeniowe płyt SMAHC oraz konwencjonalnych płyt laminowanych przy energii krytycznej. Wykonano także testy dla płyt kompozytowych zawierających włókna SMA/Fe/Al. Rezultaty doświadczeń pokazały, że wbudowanie w strukturę laminatu włókien SMA może zwiększyć odporność kompozytu na obciążenie uderze- niowe. Opisano również badania eksperymentalne płyt SMAHC z włóknami SMA wbudowanymi na różnej głębokości. Wykazano, że najlepsze parametry posiadają kompozyty z włóknami umieszczonymimożliwie daleko od uderzanej powierzchni. Manuscript received March 23, 2011; accepted for print April 11, 2011