Experimental studies on damage growth in composites under dynamic loads

Document Type

Article

Date of Original Version

3-1-2001

Abstract

Experimental investigations have been carried out to study the dynamic damage growth in glass/polyester composites. Detonation of two PETN explosive charges on a modified single edge notch (MSEN) specimen provides the dynamic load in the form of a planar tensile wave. High speed photography is used to record the dynamic damage events. The results show that damage grows perpendicular to the loading direction, similar to the static growth; the damage zone splits analogous to the crack branching in unreinforced polyester. The damage propagation velocity in a composite is higher than the crack propagation velocity in polyester resin. The damage area grows at an average rate of 4.3 m2/sec. Static experiments show that about 4 percent of the total energy is spent on the fiber-matrix interface debonding. The damage zone under dynamic loads is much higher than under static loads.

Publication Title, e.g., Journal

Applied Composite Materials

Volume

8

Issue

2

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