Can Hail Impacts Trigger Delaminations?: A qualitative study to evaluate the consequences of hail ice impact on composite structures.

The current generation of commercial aircrafts extensively use composite materials such as Carbon Fibre Reinforced Polymers (CFRP) in both exposed and primary structures. These materials lack through-thickness reinforcement and are hence susceptible to out-of-plane impact damages. Barely visible impact damage caused by low energy impacts poses a...