Fibre-reinforced composite materials are widespread in lightweight, high-performance applications. However, polymeric composites generally exhibit a brittle behaviour, which makes them susceptible to impact damage. Even low-velocity impacts can produce delaminations, cause substantial reduction of the compressive mechanical properties. Metallic layers have been embedded laminates with aim impro...

Investigations on the design of controllable magnetorheological (MR) fluid devices have focused heavily on low velocity and frequency applications. The extensive work in this area has led to a good understanding of MR fluid properties at low velocities and frequencies. However, the issues concerning MR fluid behavior in impact and shock applications are relatively unknown. To investigate MR flu...

Impact experiments of thick fabric carbon/epoxy laminate specimens, with small thickness ratio, are conducted at distinct energy levels and thicknesses to characterise the damage process. These specimens loading conditions representative a new generation critical structural components in aviation, such as wing spars, landing gear beams fittings, that increasingly being made entirely from compos...