Experimental and numerical investigation of the energy absorption characteristics of carbon-basalt hybrid fiber reinforced polymer composites under ballistic impact

The inherent brittleness of carbon fiber (CF) seriously reduces the reliability of CFRP composites subjected to ballistic impact. In this work, carbon/basalt (CF/BF) hybridization was used to improve the impact resistance of CF reinforced epoxy resin (EP) composites. The energy absorption performances and mechanisms of CF/BF/EP composites were investigated through optimizing fiber composition and stacking modes by single-stage light gas gun experiments, C-scan technology and finite element analysis (FEA). The results show that CF/BF/EP composites has a significant impact velocity sensitivity. Compared with pure CF composites, the optimized BF composition enables CF/BF/EP composites to have higher energy absorption rate (EAR) and specific energy absorption (SEA) in the impact velocity range of 163.23–281.06 m/s. The optimized stacking mode can fully explore the advantage of the rigidity of CF and deformation ability of BF and effectively inhibiting the secondary damage caused by diffusion of fragments.