Penetration and indentation on basalt fibre reinforced plastic laminates under low velocity impacts

Low-velocity impact tests were carried out on basalt-fibre-reinforced plastic panels, varying the impact energy and the laminate thickness. A previous modified model, valid for CFRP and GFRP laminates, for the prediction of the indentation as a function of impact energy, was applied: a different behaviour was observed denoting a different damage mechanism of the basalt fibre laminate. About the prediction of the penetration energy, the previous model largely applied in the literature showing the importance of the total fibre content, was adopted and a good agreement between the theoretical predictions and the experimental results was found. In analyzing previous experimental data, concerning carbon-fibre-reinforced plastics an higher impact energy was found to be necessary to penetrate the basalt laminates whereas the indentation depth at the same impact energy is lower.