Investigation of the strain rate hardening behaviour of glass fibre reinforced epoxy under blast loading

This work investigates the use of blast loadings and inverse modeling for the identification of the strain rate hardening model parameters of fibre reinforced polymers. An experimental setup allowing the generation of known and predictable blast waves, leading to repeatable dynamic response in composite plates and the measurement of the displacement and strain fields, is developed. The dynamic response of the plates is measured by means of high-speed cameras and a 3D digital image correlation technique. A suitable numerical model that is able to reproduce the experimental conditions and predict the blast response of the plates is developed. Finally, the experimental measurements and the numerical calculation are combined through an inverse method in order to identify the strain rate hardening model parameters of the tensile and shear strengths of glass fibre reinforced epoxy.