Effect of fiber thickness on damage characterization and high‐velocity impact resistance of aluminum/carbon fiber composite plate: Experiment and numerical simulation

Abstract To explore the effect of carbon fiber (CF) backplate thickness on the ballistic performance of the Al/CF plate, the projectile impact test and numerical simulation were conducted for the damage evolution and impact resistance of the Al/CF composite plate. The penetration velocity, deformation, and failure morphologies were examined by high‐speed photography, digital image correlation (DIC), and computed tomography (CT). The results show that the effect of CF plate thickness on the mechanical support of the Al plate increases nonlinearly, and the energy absorption of the Al plate does not significantly increase when the CF plate thickness rises to a certain thickness. The fiber layer position affects the change of the fiber damage shape and the fiber damage area, the fiber damage shape changes from oval to elongated along the direction of thickness, and the fiber damage area decreases first and then increases along the direction of fiber thickness. With the fiber thickness increase, the specific energy absorption of the Al/CF composite plate decreases linearly with the areal density increase. Highlights A numerical simulation model was consistent with the experiment was established. The damage mode and resistance of the target plate under impact were studied. The thickness of the CF plate increases nonlinearly to Al plate mechanical support. The damage area and shape of the fiber layer were quantitatively analyzed. The linear decrease of SEA of the target plate with the increase of areal density.