Abstract
The effect of fiber waviness on the high-strain-rate behavior of carbon/epoxy composite materials was investigated. Falling weight impact and Split Hopkinson Pressure Bar systems were developed for basic characterization of unidirectional aligned composites in compression at strain rates up to 1800 s-1. Seventy-two and forty-eight-ply unidirectional carbon/epoxy (IM6G/3501-6) laminates loaded in the longitudinal and transverse directions were characterized. Compression tests on
An incremental analysis was then used to predict the high-strain-rate behavior of composites with fiber waviness using the results obtained from the strain rate characterization. It is shown that, under longitudinal compressive loading, the nonlinear stress-strain behavior shows significant stiffening as the strain rate increases due to the shear component involved.
