Mechanical behavior and damage kinetics of woven E-glass/vinylester laminate composites under high strain rate dynamic compressive loading: Experimental and numerical investigation

• Results from a series of SHPB tests on the woven composites [0/90]26 laminate systems from low to high strain rates.
• Samples of cubic geometry are tested in in-plane and out-of-plane direction.
• During the experiments, a high speed camera was used to determine the kinetics of damage.
• Numerical investigation by using the finite elements code Abaqus.
• A correlation between the experimental and numerical results.

Split Hopkinson pressure bar (SHPB) is one of the most important and recognized apparatus used for characterizing the dynamic behavior of materials. In the first part of this study, the results from a series of SHPB tests on the woven composites are presented in this paper. The compressive material properties are determined by testing the [0°/90°]26 laminate systems from low to high strain rates. Samples of cubic geometry are tested in in-plane and out-of-plane direction. Preliminary compressive stress–strain vs. strain rates data obtained show that the dynamic material strength increases with increasing strain rates. The tests show a strong material sensitivity to dynamic loading. For in-plane tests, there is a transitional strain rate, reflecting the dependencies on strain rate observed in experiments. The results indicate that the stress–strain curves, maximum compressive stresses and strains evolve as strain rate changes. During the experiments, a high speed camera was used to determine the kinetics of damage. The specimens are mainly damaged in a crushing and shear failure mode under out-of-plane loading, as for in-plane test, the failure was dominated by fiber buckling and delamination. In the second part of this study, numerical models without damage are developed to investigate the validity of assumptions of compression Split-Hopkinson Pressure Bar technique. Abaqus software was used for the numerical simulation. The results obtained by numerical investigation of SHPB are compared with the in-plane and out-of-plane compression test of a woven composite. A good correlation was noted between the experimental and numerical results, which allows validate the numerical approach.