Impact resistance and damage tolerance of fiber reinforced composites: A review

LVI has become a serious threat to the composite industry because it induces complex failure mechanisms and internal damages which significantly reduce the structural properties of composites. The impact resistance and damage tolerance of FRC are affected by various factors such as fabric architecture, resin toughness, impactor geometry, extreme conditions, stacking sequence, and fiber/matrix hybridization. It has been identified that among these factors fabric architecture and resin toughness are the most important factors in improving the impact resistance and damage tolerance of composites. The objective of this paper is to review the effect of different factors on LVI performance of FRC, identify the gap in the literature and suggest directions for future work in this area. In addition to this, different damage modeling strategies used to predict the impact resistance and damage tolerance of FRC will be discussed in detail.