Publication

Fibre reinforced polymeric composites are in high demand in automotive industry to improve fuel efficiency, but the dynamic behaviour of composites is not very well understood which is of significant importance during dynamic events such as automobile crashes and impact on aircraft structures. This report is a review of experimental studies carried out to study the effects of strain rate a variety of composite materials such as unidirectional and quasi-isotropic laminates, woven fabrics or metal-matrix composites. Only unidirectional composite material and its constituents are investigated in this study, therefore this report mainly focuses on the review of pure fibres, pure resins and unidirectional composite, with an emphasis on carbon/epoxy and glass/epoxy material systems. It was found that mechanical properties such as stiffness, yield strength and failure strain are strain rate sensitive.