"Experimental studies on damage growth in composites under dynamic load" by S. Ravi, N. G.R. Iyengar et al.
 

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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