The influence of areal density of prepreg on crashworthiness of CFRP composite in quasi-static conditions

In this work, experimental compression tests were performed in quasi-static conditions on composite specimens in the form of tubes of two different diameters (20 mm and 42 mm).The specimens were made of 3k carbon prepregs with a dry fabric areal density of 160 g/m 2 and 204 g/m 2 , plain, and unidirectional (UD) with an areal density of 200 g/m 2 .The experiment determined the maximum forces (P max ), average forces (P i ), and the value of absorbed energy (SEA).It was shown that the use of a 21% higher areal density increases the SEA by about 25% for the plain prepreg.Changing the type of prepreg from plain to UD with a similar areal density increases the SEA by 39% -53%.