Image-based inertial impact test for composite interlaminar tensile properties

Abstract

In this work an image-based inertial impact test is proposed to measure the interlaminar tensile stiffness and strength of fibre-reinforced polymer composite materials at high strain rates. The principle is to combine ultra-high-speed imaging and full-field measurements to capture the dynamic kinematic fields and exploit the inertial effects generated under high strain rate loading. The kinematic fields are processed using the virtual fields method to reconstruct stress averages from maps of acceleration. In this way, the specimen acts like a dynamic load cell, with no gripping or external force measurement required. Stress averages are combined with strain measurements to construct stress–strain curves and identify the interlaminar stiffness and tensile strength. Special optimised virtual fields are also implemented to identify interlaminar stiffness parameters from complete maps of strain and acceleration. Interlaminar stiffness and tensile strength are successfully identified at average, peak strain rates on the order 3500 s −1 and 5000 s −1 , respectively. Results show an increase in stiffness between 30 and 35%, and an increase in strength of 125% compared to quasi-static values.

More information

Identifiers

ORCID for Lloyd Fletcher: orcid.org/0000-0003-2841-8030

ORCID for Fabrice Pierron: orcid.org/0000-0003-2813-4994

Catalogue record

Export record

Altmetrics