Damage Characterization in Glass/Epoxy Composite Laminates under Normal and Oblique Planes of Cyclic Indentation Loading with AE Monitoring

This work focuses on the experimental investigation of indentation damage resistance in different stacking sequences of glass/epoxy composite laminates under cyclic loading on normal (0°) and oblique (20°) planes. The stacking sequence, such as unidirectional [0]12, angle ply [±45]6S, and cross ply [0/90]6S, were subjected to cyclic indentation loading and monitoring by acoustic emission testing (AE). The laminates were loaded at the center using a hemispherical steel indenter with a 12.7 mm diameter. The cyclic indentation loading was performed at displacements from 0.5 to 3 mm with an increment of 0.5 mm in each cycle. Subsequently, the residual compressive strength of the post-indented laminates was estimated by testing them under in-plane loading, once again with AE monitoring. Mechanical responses such as peak load, absorbed energy, stiffness, residual dent, and damage area were used for the quantification of the indentation-induced damage. The normalized AE cumulative counts, AE energy, and Felicity ratio were used for monitoring the damage initiation and propagation. Moreover, the discrete wavelet analysis of acoustic emission signals and fast Fourier transform enabled the calculation of the peak frequency content of each damage mechanism. The results showed that the cross-ply laminates had superior indentation damage resistance over angle ply and unidirectional (UD) laminates under normal and oblique planes of cyclic loading. However, the conclusion from the results was that UD laminates showed a better reduction in residual compressive strength than the other laminate configurations.