It is commonly recognised that significant damages, e.g. delamination, blind-side fibre damage (damage modes which can further weaken the existing undamaged critical failure modes), may be difficult to detect visually in composite structures, e.g. NVD (Non-Visible Damage), BVID (Barely Visible Damage).
A particular concern is low velocity high-energy blunt impact, e.g. by ground vehicle impact. This problem may worsen due to ground vehicle shock absorbers (introduced to reduce damage to metallic structure) which have the potential to make damage detection more difficult.
The objective of the study is to improve the understanding of impact damages to composite structure (principal structure element) and their detection with a particular focus on high-energy blunt impact (within the bounds of CS-25 allowable damage limits (ADL) dimensions) occurring during ground operations.
