Compressive Behaviour and Failure Mechanisms of GFRP Composite at High Strain Rates

TB332; Experimental investigations into the compressive behavior of glass fiber reinforced poly-mer (GFRP) composite at high strain rates were carried out using a split Hopkinson pressure bar (SHPB) setup. The GFRP laminates were made from E-glass fibers and epoxy resins by vacuum as-sisted compression molding machine. The results of the compressive tests indicated that the mechan-ical behavior of the GFRP composite depends highly on the strain rate. The compressive peak stress, toughness and Young's modulus of the GFRP composite increased with the increase of strain rate, while the strain level at the initial stages of damage was shortened with the increase of strain rate. In addition, the dynamic deformation behavior and failure process of the specimens were observed di-rectly by using a high-speed camera. Following the experiments, the fracture morphologies and dam-age modes were examined by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) to explore the possible failure mechanisms of the specimens. The results showed that multiple failure mechanisms appeared, such as matrix crack, fiber-matrix debonding, fiber failure and shear fracture.