Characterization of unidirectional carbon fiber reinforced polyamide-6 thermoplastic composite under longitudinal compression loading at high strain rate

Abstract

In the presented work, an experimental investigation has been performed to characterize the strain rate dependency of unidirectional carbon fiber reinforced polyamide-6 composite for longitudinal compression loading. An end-loaded compression specimen geometry, suitable for contactless optical strain measurement via digital image correlation and dynamic loading in a split-Hopkinson pressure bar, was developed. For the dynamic experiments at a constant strain rate of 100 s-1 a modified version of the Dynamic Compression Fixture, developed by Koerber and Camanho [Koerber and Camanho, Composites Part A, 42, 462-470, 2011] was used. The results were compared with quasi-static test results at a strain rate of 3 · 10-4 s-1 using the same specimen geometry. It was found that the longitudinal compressive strength increased by 61% compared to the strength value obtained from the quasi-static tests.