The influence of pre-stress and curvature on impact response of curved composite laminates

In this paper the effect of pre-stress on impact response of composite laminates is considered. For this aim three various specimens were provided and impacted under 4 different impact energies: 1-A curved laminates without pre-stress (the initial curvature of A). 2-A pre-stressed curved laminate in which the initial curvature of A was changed to curvature of B by pre-stress. 3-A curved laminate without pre-stress and the initial curvature of B. In this way the effect of pre-stress and curvature were considered. The results showed that by applying pre-stress which leads to increasing the curvature (second group) the maximum force and damaged area increased significantly. Comparing the impact response of second and third specimens showed that in the same curvature the pre-stress caused less damaged area which is very important result for designing the structures containing curved laminate.