Abstract
Fiber-reinforced composite laminated plates (FRPs) have many potential applications in the area of automotive structural crashworthiness. Among these, an FRP may be used as a side door liner to absorb and dissipate energy during a side impact, thus allowing less door intrusion into the passenger compartment, potentially reducing occupant injury. As a first step in the design of such a plate, the authors have studied the effects of relative fiber content on the impact properties of laminated composite plates with a particular emphasis on the damage mode-that is, delamination, matrix cracking, and fiber breakage. E-glass fiber/epoxy plates with fiber weight percents ranging from 50 to 80 percent were studied at impact energies ranging from 5J to 40J.