Ballistic performance of bio-inspired hybrid interleaved composite structures suitable for aerospace applications

We investigate the ballistic performance of an aircraft engine containment casing demonstrator, made of composite materials with a novel bio-inspired hybrid interleaved design, under high-velocity impact (HVI) at a specific angle. Firstly, we apply a bio-inspired (BI) helicoidal design to develop a large-scale monolithic laminate concept made of carbon fibre-reinforced polymer (CFRP). Then, we hybridise the developed BI laminate concept with interleaved blocks of Zylon fibre (PBO)-reinforced polymer to develop a large-scale BI hybrid interleaved laminate concept. We then further hybridise the developed BI hybrid concept with titanium (Ti) foils (located at the impact face) so that in total we have three large-scale laminate concepts. We manufacture 6 large-scale laminates from each concept with dimensions of 225 × 225 mm and a target areal weight of 0.95 g/cm2. We then test them (perpendicularly) under HVI ranging from 150 to 300 m/s to obtain the ballistic limit and energy dissipation. Secondly, after selecting the best-performing developed laminate concept, we scale it up to develop industrial demonstrator panels with a target areal weight of 1.5 g/cm2 and dimensions of 550 × 360 mm. We test the panels under HVI at an angle of 55° with a larger and heavier projectile, to more closely represent a fan blade-off event onto the engine casing. The results of the large-scale laminate concept tests show that the BI hybrid interleaved CFRP/PBO concept outperformed the rest of the concepts with 54% and 34% improvement in energy dissipation compared to that of quasi-isotropic (QI) and the BI monolithic CFRP, respectively. Our results show that small-scale designs for HVI-resistant CFRP-based laminates cannot be simply assumed to exhibit an equivalent performance for industrial applications with thicker laminates, heavier projectiles and impacts at an angle.