Materials Science and Engineering B 132 (2006) 126128

Performance evaluation of VARTM manufactured textile

composites for the aerospace and defense applications
Ajit D. Kelkar a, , J.S. Tate b , P. Chaphalkar c
a

Center for Advanced Materials and Smart Structures, Department of Mechanical Engineering,
North Carolina A&T State University, Greensboro, NC 27411, USA
b Department of Engineering and Technology, Texas State University, San Marcos, TX 78666, USA
c Padnos College of Engineering & Computing, School of Engineering, Grand Valley State University, Grand Rapids, MI 49504, USA

Abstract
High specific modulus and high specific strength are the most required characteristics of the materials in the aerospace and defense structural
applications. Fibers in textile form exhibit good out-of-plane properties, and good fatigue and impact resistance. Additionally, they have better
dimensional stability and conformability. The variety of fabric architectures includes weaves, knits, and braids. Vacuum assisted resin transfer
molding (VARTM) is a low-cost closed molding process with the capability of producing complex parts. Before VARTM manufactured textile
composites can be confidently used in the primary structures, it is necessary to understand the damage mechanisms under various loadings especially
under impact and fatigue. This paper addresses tensioncompression fatigue performance of twill woven S2 glass/vinyl ester and plain-woven
S2 glass/epoxy thick composites for composite armored vehicle (CAV) applications. The stitch-bonded E glass/vinyl ester and woven roving E
glass/vinyl ester composites were investigated for naval applications under low velocity impact loadings.
2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Woven; Stitch bonded; VARTM; Impact; Fatigue

1. Introduction
The common textile composites are woven, braided, knitted,
stitch boded, and Z-pinned. Textile composites are being considered for primary structural applications where out-of-plane
properties are also important so that the structure can take up
the secondary loads due to load eccentricities, local buckling,
etc. In general, textile composites offer better dimensional stability over a large range of temperatures, better out-of-plane
properties, better impact resistance, subtle conformability, and
deep draw moldability/shapability.
In woven structure two or more sets of yarns, fibers, roving,
or filaments are interlaced where the elements pass each other
essentially at right angles and one set of elements is parallel
to the fabric axis which is referred to as a woven structure. A
roving is a collection of glass filaments put together with as
little twist as possible. Thus, a woven structure composed of
roving is usually known as a woven roving structure. On the
other hand, a structure produced by mechanically combining

the warp (0 ) and weft (90 ) roving is a stitch-bonded fabric.

The resulting product is a non-crimp fabric. The advantage with
stitch-bonded fabrics is that a single layer of fabric can be made
multidirectional by orienting the roving at any angle between
0 and 90 and polyester thread to stitch them together. Fig. 1
displays plain weave, twill weave, woven roving, and stitchbonded fabric [1,2].
2. Objectives
1. To perform and compare tensioncompression fatigue performance of twill woven S2 glass/vinyl ester and plain-woven
S2 glass/epoxy thick composites.
2. To perform and compare low velocity impact performance
of stitch-bonded E glass/vinyl ester and woven roving E
glass/vinyl ester composites.
3. Experimental details
3.1. Material systems

Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 336 256 2406; fax: +1 336 256 1247.
E-mail address: kelkar@ncat.edu (A.D. Kelkar).

0921-5107/$ see front matter 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.mseb.2006.02.034

The plain-woven S2 glass/SC-15 epoxy, twill woven S2

glass/C50 vinyl ester, stitch-bonded E glass/510A-40 vinyl ester,

A.D. Kelkar et al. / Materials Science and Engineering B 132 (2006) 126128

127

Fig. 1. (a) Plain weave; (b) twill weave [1]; (c) E glass woven roving fabric; (d) E glass stitch-bonded fabric [2].

and woven roving E glass/510A-40 vinyl ester composites were

used for the current research. The manufacturers of these resins
and fibers are as follows: 411-C-50 and 510A-40 vinyl esters
(Dow Chemical Company, Inc.); SC-15 epoxy resin (Applied
Poleramics, Inc.); FGI 1800 A2 E glass stitch-bonded fabric
and FGI 1854 E glass woven roving fabric (Fiber Glass Industries, Inc.); and S2 glass plain-woven and twill woven fabric
(Burlington Glass Fabrics, Inc.).
3.2. Performance evaluation
The composite panels were fabricated using VARTM process [3]. The overall fiber volume fraction was 0.5 0.05. The
load controlled constant amplitude tensioncompression fatigue
tests were conducted at R ratio of 1 and frequency of 1 Hz. The
impact tests were conducted using the DYNATUP 8250 impact
drop tower device. In this study the gravity mode was used for
all low velocity impact tests. The crosshead weight was maintained at 5.4 kgf. The impact height was varied until the impact
loadtime history plots indicated no drop in impact loads due
to possible impact damage. The energy level corresponding to
this drop height was called as threshold energy level or lower
bound. To establish the energy level for the beginning of penetration or the upper bound, the drop height was increased until
there was no significant increase in the impact loads. Impact
tests were performed between the lower bound and upper bound
drop heights at 50.8 mm increments.

4.2. Low velocity impact tests

The stitch-bonded E glass/510A-40 vinyl ester and woven
roving E glass/510A-40 vinyl ester composites were investigated for naval applications under low velocity impact loadings
[2].
In case of woven roving composites the damage initiation
or lower bound energy level occurred at drop height of
5.08 cm and at a load between 113.4 kgf and 136 kgf and
the upper bound or beginning of penetration occurred at a
drop height of 50.8 cm and at a load between 567 kgf and
590 kgf.
In the case of stitch-bonded composites the damage initiation or lower bound energy level occurred at drop height of
5.08 cm and at a load between 136 kgf and 158.8 kgf and
the upper bound or beginning of penetration occurred at a
drop height of 40.64 cm and at a load between 612.34 kgf and
635 kgf.
The stitch-bonded composites displayed better impact resistance properties than woven roving composites. They also
absorbed more energy than the woven roving composites.
The damage characteristics of the two were entirely different
from one another. It can bee seen from Fig. 4(a) that in the
case of the woven roving composite the damage is localized,
whereas, as seen in Fig. 4(b), in the case of stitch-bonded
composite, damage occurs by means of spalling where the
tows peel away from the laminate. The damage in stitch-

4. Results and discussions

4.1. Tensioncompressions fatigue tests
The plain-woven S2 glass/SC-15 epoxy and twill woven
S2 glass/C50 vinyl ester thick composites were investigated for composite integrated armored vehicles (CAV) under
tensioncompression fatigue loading [46].
The endurance limit for both the material systems is 20% of
the ultimate tensile strength (refer Fig. 2).
The fatigue life of plain-woven S2 glass/SC-15 is better than
twill woven S2 glass/C50 composites.
The fatigue failure patterns indicated shear failure at an angle.
There was large matrix cracking and delaminations (refer
Fig. 3(a and b)).

Fig. 2. SN curves for plain-woven S2 glass/SC-15 and twill woven S2

glass/C50 composites.

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A.D. Kelkar et al. / Materials Science and Engineering B 132 (2006) 126128

Fig. 3. Failure patterns (R ratio = 1 and frequency = 1 Hz): (a) twill woven S2 glass/C50 composites [5] and (b) plain-woven S2 glass/SC-15 composites [4].

Fig. 4. Progressive damage of E glass/vinyl ester composites under low velocity impact loading [2]: (a) woven roving composite and (b) stitch-bonded composites.

bonded composites is more substantial as compared to woven

roving.
5. Conclusions
The plain-woven S2 glass/SC-15 epoxy and twill woven
S2 glass/C50 vinyl ester thick composites were investigated for composite integrated armored vehicles under
tensioncompression fatigue loading. It is observed that fatigue
life of plain-woven S2 glass/SC-15 epoxy composites is better than twill woven S2 glass/C50 vinyl ester composites. The
stitch-bonded E glass/510A-40 vinyl ester and woven roving
E glass/510A-40 vinyl ester composites were investigated for
naval applications under low velocity impact loadings. The
stitch-bonded composites displayed better impact resistance
properties than woven roving composites. They also absorbed
more energy than the woven roving composites.
Acknowledgements
The research reported herein was performed under grants
DAAH04-95-1-0369 from Army Research Laboratory (ARL)
and N 00014-01-1-1033 from the Office of Naval Research
(ONR).

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