A New Hydraulic Crash Machine for Composite Structures

Abstract

This paper describes the design and implementation of a new innovative machine for hydraulic crash of composite structures at a laboratory scale. This machine can be classified in the category of low velocity impact machines. Its first use was conducted on a glass fiber-reinforced polymer composite plate (GFRP), impacted by a fluid (water) at 10 bars during 10 ms. Initial results, in terms of pressure and deflection, show the potential of this machine for studying the dynamic response of a structure in hydraulic crash test.