Low-velocity impact behavior of composites reinforced with weft-knitted spacer glass fabrics

Structural parameters of fabrics influence the mechanical behaviour of fabric-reinforced composites. Weft-knitted spacer fabrics have high energy absorption capacity. In this paper, low-velocity impact behavior of composites reinforced with weft-knitted spacer fabrics has been studied using energy-balance method. The effect of fabric geometry on the impact behavior of composites was investigated. A theoretical model was generated to predict the energy dissipated through the impact, considering the structural parameters of fabrics as reinforcement of composites. For this purpose, dissipated energies due to contact, membrane and bending deformation of fabrics, and buckling deformation of spacer yarns were considered. In order to evaluate the proposed model, weft-knitted spacer fabrics with two types of spacer yarn's orientation were used as reinforcement of composites. Low-velocity impact examinations were performed using the drop hammer testing machine. The results showed that the model has about 12 and 13% error in prediction of dissipated energies of different samples. Comparison between theoretical and experimental results confirms that the proposed model is capable to predict the impact behavior of weft-knitted spacer fabric-reinforced composites.