Identification of constitutive properties of composite materials under high strain rate loading using optical strain measurement techniques

The paper describes experimental work that establishes a methodology for characterising the mechanical behaviour of glass fibre reinforced plastics at high strain rates. The experimental work is carried out using a high speed servo-hydraulic tensile test machine. Two optical strain measurement techniques, Digital Image Correlation (DIC) and the Grid Method (GM), are used to identify the strain field. The experimental work is described in detail and provides a practical description of how to obtain and process the optical data. The conclusion is a set of validated results that characterise the Young's Modulus of a GFRP at different strain rates.