Probabilistic damage modelling of textile-reinforced thermoplastic composites under high velocity impact based on combined acoustic emission and electromagnetic emission measurements

• Destruction and recovery of bonds during impact are experimentally analysed.
• A probabilistic impact model for failure of textile composites is proposed.
• Experimental verification shows the validity of the model up to approx. 1200 m/s.

The purpose of this paper is to provide new experimental data for textile-reinforced thermoplastic composites under high velocity impact up to 1500 m/s. Based on the performed experimental studies, the phenomenology of destruction and recovery of bonds is revealed and a phenomenological material model is developed for the impact scenario. To achieve this goal, a new methodology to study the impact behaviour of composite materials has been used. A novel experimental device was developed together with an appropriate evaluation software that enables the determination of the energy redistribution, the residual deformations, the macroscopic fracture process and the phenomena of destruction and restoration of bonds between the material constituents during a direct central collision of a spherical projectile with the tested composite plates. A material model was developed to describe the high velocity impact process that combines a continuum damage mechanics model with a novel probabilistic approach for bond destruction and recovery. Numerical simulations are performed with the newly elaborated model in order to compare its predictions with the experimental results. A standard numerical model was used as a benchmark.