Impact performance of out of die UV cured pultruded profiles for vessel structures

Abstract

Out of die ultraviolet (UV) cured pultrusion is an automated process for manufacturing bent profiles that can replace the labour-intensive processes currently employed for manufacturing stiffeners for vessels structures. As the applied pulling forces are lower than in conventional pultrusion, profiles with low longitudinal fibre content can be manufactured, improving the transverse mechanical properties of the pultruded composites. Since impact response is significantly relevant for naval applications, in this paper, the low-velocity impact performance of a multiaxially reinforced UV pultruded profile has been compared to that of a typical pultruded composite. The impact resistance achieved for the multiaxial reinforcement configuration showed an 85% higher perforation energy threshold and a 100% higher maximum peak force than in the reference one. The damage tolerance of the multiaxial configuration was also higher, as when suffering a 30 J impact retained 60% of the stiffness, whereas the conventional pultruded composite only did 45%.