PLANE BEHAVIOR AT HIGH-STRAIN RATES OF A QUASI-UNIDIRECTIONAL E-GLASSPOLYESTER COMPOSITE - IMPACT APPLICATION/

Dealing with the plane behaviour of a composite quasi-unidirectional e lementary ply made of E glass/polyester, this paper contributes to the study of impact phenomena on ceramic/composite bi-layered targets. Fi rstly, a quasistatic modelisation of the elementary ply behavior, in p lane tensile and plane shear, is presented. It allows a good descripti on of the residual strains and of stiffness losses. The second part pr esents a new fixing method for testing orthotropic materials with the tensile Hopkinson bars apparatus. Then, the elementary ply is tested a t high strain rates and these tests are simulated with the constitutiv e model. Impact simulations incorporating a proposed failure criterion which is proposed are performed, and then compared with experimental.