Materials Performance and

Characterization
J. Martı́nez-Figueroa,1 C. Rubio-Gonzalez,1 F. Velasco-Reyes,1 and N.
Benseddiq2

DOI: 10.1520/MPC20130042

Dynamic Fracture
Toughness
of a Plain Weave
Carbon-Epoxy
Composite: Validation of
Test Results with Finite
Element Analyses
VOL. 3 / NO. 3 / 2014
 Materials Performance and Characterization
doi:10.1520/MPC20130042
Manuscript received September 9,
2013; accepted for publication
January 3, 2014; published online
March 26, 2014.
1
Centro de Ingenierı́a y Desarrollo
Industrial, Pie de la Cuesta 702,
Desarrollo San Pablo, 76130
Querétaro, Qro, Mexico.
2
Laboratoire de Mécanique de Lille
IUT-A GMP, Univ. de Lille1, Rue de
la Recherche BP 179, 59653
Villenueve d’Ascq, France.
3
This paper is a contribution to a
Special Issue of Materials
Performance and Characterization
on “Fracture Toughness,” Guest
Editors, Bojan Podgornik and
Votjeh Leskovsek, Institute of
Metals and Technology, Ljubljana,
Slovenia.
Copyright V
C 2014 by ASTM International, 100 Barr Harbor Drive, P.O. Box C700, West Conshohocken, PA 19428-2959
/ Vol. 3 / No. 3 / 2014 / available online at www.astm.org
J. Martı́nez-Figueroa,1 C. Rubio-Gonzalez,1 F. Velasco-Reyes,1 and N. Benseddiq2
Dynamic Fracture Toughness
of a Plain Weave Carbon-Epoxy
Composite: Validation of Test
Results with Finite Element Analyses
Reference
Martı́nez-Figueroa, J., Rubio-Gonzalez, C., Velasco-Reyes, F., and Benseddiq, N., “Dynamic
Fracture Toughness of a Plain Weave Carbon-Epoxy Composite: Validation of Test
Results with Finite Element Analyses,” Materials Performance and Characterization, Vol. 3,
No. 3, 2014, pp. 1–17, doi:10.1520/MPC20130042. ISSN 2165-39923
ABSTRACT
This document presents the Dynamic Fracture Toughness (KID) measurement
for a plain weave carbon-epoxy composite material. An instrumented
Hopkinson bar arrangement is used to perform the tests with pre-cracked
specimens loaded on a three point bending configuration. The material
behavior obtained by the experimental results is compared with Finite Element
simulation of static and idealized Hopkinson bars events. A number of
important aspects are approached. Among them, the Stress Intensity Factor
(SIF) for fiber-epoxy composites considered as transversely isotropic media,
the formulae to obtain this parameter compared with isotropic materials, and
the precise follow of the SIF evolution during these events. The Finite Element
Analyses (FEAs) suggest loss of contact phenomena not only in the
transmitted but also with the incident bar, and according to this, a specimen
FEA is used to verify the influence of this loss of contact in the SIF evolution
and KID calculations. Accordingly, a novel approach using the incident pulse as
input for a FEA of the complete arrangement including contact elements is
proposed and implemented, so the new revealed phenomena are taken into
account. The experimental results using this approach show that the dynamic
fracture toughness varies from 15.45 to 25.6 MPa*m0.5 in the projectile speed
range between 10 and 20 m/s.
1
MARTÍNEZ-FIGUEROA ET AL. ON PLAIN WEAVE CARBON-EPOXY COMPOSITE 2

Keywords
dynamic stress intensity factor, dynamic fracture toughness, plain weave carbon-epoxy
composite, Hopkinson bars

Introduction
Composite materials are becoming widespread in many engineering applications
because they have desirable properties such as high specific strength which could
not be achieved by either of the constituent materials acting alone. They have unique
advantages over monolithic materials, such as high strength, high stiffness, long fa-
tigue life, low density, and adaptability to the intended function of the structure.
Accordingly, the need of the mechanical characterization of these materials is impor-
tant. A good example of this is the aeronautical industry: in recent years, aircraft
manufacturers have expanded the use of composites to the fuselage and wings
because the above mentioned advantages. However, one of the major concerns
in the use of composite materials is the limited information on their behavior in
airframe structures. This concern focuses on how these structures behave when
damaged and as they age, due among other reasons, to the fact that little information
is available on the behavior of these materials compared to the behavior of metals.
This work contributes to the characterization of a carbon-epoxy plain weave
composite in the following manner: it presents the measurement of the dynamic
fracture toughness of this material using the three-point-bending (3PB) Hopkinson
arrangement; this method was introduced in Ref. [1] and used in Ref. [2]. Accord-
ingly, the dynamic fracture toughness is defined as the critical Stress Intensity Factor
(SIF) value at the instant of crack onset; therefore, the correct tracking of this param-
eter during the test is of capital importance.
The SIF as a fundamental concept in the Linear Elastic Fracture Mechanics
(LEFM) has been widely studied and used. Its definition for orthotropic media is
more complex than for their isotropic counterparts. An important number
of research studies have been carried out to define this parameter for many con-
figurations by approaches based on continuum-medium mechanics. Among the the-
oretical background on this subject, the work in Ref. [3] presents a complete
mathematical definition of the stress fields in the front of a crack present in a three-
dimensional medium of a unidirectional composite plate, hitherto unavailable in the
vicinity of the front of a semi-infinite through-thickness crack. Another contribution
to the mathematical characterization of orthotropic materials is the work in Ref. [4],
in which the orthotropic material is also considered as functionally graded, adding
complexity to the obtainment of the crack tip parameters; in Ref. [4], analytical solu-
tions are presented for mode I cracks and Finite Element solutions for mixed mode
cracks, the results correspond very well to analytical solutions. The work in Ref. [5]
applied a boundary element formulation in order to obtain the SIF in transversely
isotropic three-dimensional bodies and presents FE examples to validate this tech-
nique. Among the efforts to relate the SIF to the Crack Opening Displacement
(COD) in composite materials, the work in Ref. [6] proposes a simple least-squares
method incorporating COD values to solve mixed-mode fracture problems; the

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MARTÍNEZ-FIGUEROA ET AL. ON PLAIN WEAVE CARBON-EPOXY COMPOSITE 3

major advantage of this method is that COD values very near the crack tip are not
necessary. All these works characterize the SIF in static regime.
The effect of the fiber orientation in the quasistatic fracture toughness in
symmetric composites laminates has been investigated in Ref. [7], where a Dis-
placement Correlation Method solved numerically is used to relate the COD and
Crack Sliding Displacement to the SIF in modes I and II. The numerical predic-
tions obtained are close to the experimental values using empirical failure loads.
The analyses carried out in Ref. [7] show an effect of fiber orientation: the frac-
ture toughness decreases as the orientation angles with respect to the loading
direction is increased.
The work in Ref. [8] can be noted as a basis of the SIF formulation for trans-
versely orthotropic composite materials; the formulation presented is later used in
Ref. [9] to extract the SIF from strain field measurements in the vicinity of stationary
cracks. This formulation is used in the dynamic regimen and it is observed that iner-
tial effects of the specimen are taken into account as long as the crack tip remains
stationary.
Another background reference is the work in Ref. [10], which defines the
especially orthotropic SIF applied to composite materials as a function of the Crack
Tip Opening Displacement (CTOD). Regarding the measurement of fracture tough-
ness in dynamic regimen, the work in Ref. [11] recently used this formulation to
obtain the SIF evolution in unidirectional carbon-epoxy and glass-epoxy composite
specimens loaded in 3PB Hopkinson bars arrangement. It is reported in Ref. [11]
that the dynamic fracture toughness is greater than quasi-static toughness for both
materials; they also remarked that the dynamic fracture toughness of glass-epoxy is
not affected by projectile velocity.
On the other hand, the research carried out in Ref. [9] for graphite-epoxy uni-
directional fiber composites using digital image correlation from high speed photog-
raphy suggests that the fracture behavior of this material is sensitive to the loading
rate when crack extension is occurring. It is also observed that at crack initiation, the
stress intensity factor values are consistently lower than the quasi-static values.
Among the most recent investigations in dynamic SIF tests, the work in
Ref. [12] presents a novel method of measuring the mixed mode-I and mode-II SIF
using a combined experimental-numerical technique: the Split Hopkinson tension
bar and the Finite Element Method. A remarkable contribution of this work is the
capability of loading the cracked mixed mode specimens in dynamic regimen.
As stated, the dynamic fracture toughness is a subject of interest in mechanical
testing and characterization of composite materials, and it is in development due to
the growing demand for engineering and industrial applications.
This document presents a detailed analysis of the 3-point-bending Hopkinson
bar methodology to measure the dynamic fracture toughness of a plain-weave
carbon-epoxy composite. This property (as the critical value of the stress intensity
factor evolution at the crack onset instant) is carefully approached for the material
tested as a transversely isotropic solid. The methodology to obtain the dynamic frac-
ture toughness consists of the use of the pulses registered in the Hopkinson bars to
obtain the effect of the bars exerted on the specimen. Typically, this effect is the force
on the interfaces, but in this work the use of velocities in the interface of the speci-
men with the bars is proposed and evaluated.

Materials Performance and Characterization

MARTÍNEZ-FIGUEROA ET AL. ON PLAIN WEAVE CARBON-EPOXY COMPOSITE 4

Finite Element Analyses (FEA) of an idealized experiment were carried out in

this work. The results suggest that the loss of contact is present not only in the trans-
mitted, but also in the incident bar tip; according to this, a new approach that uses
only the incident pulse to feed the FEA and takes these losses of contact into account
is proposed and implemented for a number of composite carbon-epoxy specimens
studied in this document.

The Stress Intensity Factor

STRESS INTENSITY FACTOR FOR TRANSVERSELY ISOTROPIC MATERIALS
The SIF is a scalar quantity that defines the stress field around the crack tip in the
LEFM approach. In a static regimen, the SIF value is proportional to the external
forces applied to the specimen considered. A method of calculating the SIF related
directly to the CTOD was introduced by Williams [10]. The material is considered
transversely isotropic and the mode I Stress Intensity Factor can be obtained as
reported by Rubio and Wang [11]:

p x1 x2 1
(1) KI ¼ pffiffiffiffiffiffiffi uy
2pr x1 þ x2 a22

where x is related to l according to

lj ¼ ixj j ¼ 1; 2

and l1 and l2 are roots of

a11 l4 þ ð2a12 þ a66 Þl2 þ a22 ¼ 0

with aij being linked with the elastic constants according to

a11 ¼ 1=E1 a12 ¼ 12 =E1 a66 ¼ 1=G12 a22 ¼ 1=E2

For plane stress assumptions, r is the distance from the crack tip to the point where
transverse displacement uy is determined. From FEA analyses, the dynamic SIF KI(t)
is computed by simply comparing the dynamic crack displacement uy(t) of a node
close to the crack tip with its static value according to Eq 1. In this work, this meth-
odology is compared to the stress evolution in the front of the crack tip.

SIMPLIFIED FORMS
Simple mathematical expressions to relate SIF and the Stress perpendicular to the
crack tip to the CTOD assuming LEFM, will be obtained next in an isotropic elastic
medium under mode I loading and plane stress. The expression that relates the dis-
placement, uy and the SIF, KI, as presented in [13] is
rffiffiffiffiffi    
KI r h h
(2) uy ¼ sin j þ 1  2cos2
2G 2p 2 2

where:
G ¼ the material shear modulus, and
j ¼ defined as (3  )/(1 þ ).

Materials Performance and Characterization

MARTÍNEZ-FIGUEROA ET AL. ON PLAIN WEAVE CARBON-EPOXY COMPOSITE 5

When h ¼ 180 , uy becomes the displacement of the upper crack mount point
located at a distance r from the crack tip.
Here, uy and CTOD are used indistinctively with the caution of that in a strict
sense, r should be conveniently small and uy is actually one half of the CTOD due to
the model symmetry. Due to plane stress, j þ 1 ¼ 4/(1 þ ); also at h ¼ 180 Eq 2
can be stated in a convenient way to clear KI:
rffiffiffiffiffi  rffiffiffiffiffi 
  2p 1 2p 1 þ 
(3) KI ¼ 2G uy ¼ 2GðCTODÞ
r jþ1 r 4

And for isotropic materials, E ¼ 2 G (1 þ ), then Eq 3 becomes

 rffiffiffiffiffi
E 2p
(4) KI ¼ CTOD
4 r

A similar re-statement of Eq 1 corresponding to transversely isotropic materials is

performed next. Let’s introduce an elastic constant named Ce, for the transversely
isotropic case as follows:

x1 x2 1
(5) Ce ¼
x1 þ x2 a22

Notice that this constant depends only on the material elastic properties, E1, E2, G12,
and  12. Equation 1 takes the form

rffiffiffiffiffi
CTODðCe Þ 2p
(6) KI ¼
2 r

Equation 6 is the relation between the CTOD and the mode I SIF for transversely
isotropic media under plane stress conditions. When the medium is isotropic, Ce
simply becomes E/2 as observed in Eq 4.
The relation between stress and CTOD is straightforward if the stress consid-
ered, rI, is located at h ¼ 0 and directed normal to the crack plane because the clas-
sical isotropic form found also in Ref. [13] keeps validity for transversely isotropic
materials:

KI
(7) rI ¼ pffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
2pr

The substitution of Eq 6 into Eq 7 leads to the following relation:

CTODðCe Þ
(8) rI ¼
2r

In this manner, rI can be related to its diametrically opposed CTOD (located at

the same r, but at h ¼ 180 ) by Eq 8, valid for isotropic and transversely isotropic
materials. Equation 6 and Eq 8 contribute to simplify the SIF analyses in a unified
manner for both types of material by the calculation and use of the appropriate elas-
tic parameter Ce as it will be presented later.

Materials Performance and Characterization

MARTÍNEZ-FIGUEROA ET AL. ON PLAIN WEAVE CARBON-EPOXY COMPOSITE 6

FIG. 1 (a) Warp and fill directions in the plain weave carbon-epoxy prepreg. (b) Geometry of the specimens.

Specimen Preparation and Characterization

The material used in this work is a carbon fiber/epoxy prepreg DA-4518 plain
weave. The geometry of the specimens used in experiments is shown in Fig. 1. They
are rectangular plates of 100 mm by 20 mm, and a mean thickness of 4.5 mm
(20 plies) cured in autoclave. A slit of 0.4 mm width and length of 10 mm was made
by using a diamond disk to simulate a straight thin crack in the middle of the piece.
A series of tension tests were performed to determine the properties of this
material. The material was assumed to be transversely isotropic. The following prop-
erties were measured: Young’s moduli E1 and E2, Poisson ration  12 and shear mod-
ulus G12; 1-direction is the so-called warp and 2-direction is called fill, as shown in
Fig. 1. The tension tests were conducted according to recommendations of ASTM
D3039-08 [14] and performed on a MTS 810 testing machine. Tests were performed
on several specimens. A summary of the mechanical properties including density at
room temperature is presented in Table 1. Constituent content of the material was
determined according to ASTM D3171 [15] the results are shown in Table 2.

Finite Element Models

STATIC FEA
In order to accurately follow the evolution of the SIF during the tests, a FEA of the
specimen is used. The model was meshed with 4-node quadrilaterals and plane
stress option with the specimens’ thickness. A static load of 1500 N (3000 N for the
whole specimen) was applied to the two middle nodes the semi-model to reproduce

TABLE 1
Mechanical properties of the composite material used on the experiments.

Property Carbon/Epoxy Plain Weave

E1 (GPa) 49.816
E2 (GPa) 53.341
 12 0.0479
G12 (GPa) 3.51
q (Kg/m3) 1505.8

Materials Performance and Characterization

MARTÍNEZ-FIGUEROA ET AL. ON PLAIN WEAVE CARBON-EPOXY COMPOSITE 7

TABLE 2
Averaged constituent content of the composite material used on the experiments.

Carbon-Epoxy Plain Weave

Fiber content (vol. %) 45.19
Matrix content (vol. %) 50.15
Void content (vol. %) 4.65

a three-point-bending static configuration. The loads, constraints, and symmetry

boundary conditions are applied as shown in Fig. 2.
The SIF evaluation is obtained from calculations starting at the position of the
nodes presented in Fig. 3. Both nodes are located 0.2 mm from the notch-simulated
crack tip; in this case, the crack mouth nodes are also shifted 0.2 mm perpendicularly
due to the specimen crack geometry. The rI-derived SIF will be obtained from the
nodes in front of the crack tip and the CTOD SIF from the nodes located in the
crack mouth.

DYNAMIC FEA
The 3PB Hopkinson bar arrangement used during the experiments has been simu-
lated. The FEA consists of three Hopkinson bars (1.8 ms length, E ¼ 190e9,  ¼ .29,
q ¼ 8000 Kg/m3) in contact with the specimen. The incident bar created with plane
axisymmetric elements, with standard flexible contact to the specimen geometry
model, which in turn is in contact with the transmitted bar with the same contact
type. The transmitted bar is modeled with plane stress with thickness set to
14.9618 mm so that it simulates a rectangular bar with the same cross-section area
as the real circular transmitted bars. The use of plane stress with thickness instead of
axisymmetry in the transmitted bar is because the axisymmetric option in Ansys
revolves the model always around the global y-axis. The specimen and the transmit-
ted bar are applied symmetric boundary conditions as indicated in Fig. 4.

FIG. 2
Loads, constraints, and
boundary conditions used for
specimen static FEAs.

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MARTÍNEZ-FIGUEROA ET AL. ON PLAIN WEAVE CARBON-EPOXY COMPOSITE 8

FIG. 3
Detail of the mesh in the crack
tip of the specimen’s FEA.

The incident bar free end was loaded with the idealized effect of the projectile
used during the experiments. The projectile has the same cross-section area and ma-
terial as the bars and its length is 156 mm, theoretically a rectangular compressive
pulse of 312 mm will be created in the bar with a time length of 64 ls. A velocity
pulse of 60 ls with rise times of 10 ls is applied (80 ls as total duration). The pulse
amplitude is ideally one half of the measured impact projectile speed of the first
experiment (called m1), this is 11.85/2 ¼ 5.925 m/s. The total time span of the simu-
lation was 750 ls.

FIG. 4
FEA of the experimental
Hopkinson bars arrangement.

Materials Performance and Characterization

MARTÍNEZ-FIGUEROA ET AL. ON PLAIN WEAVE CARBON-EPOXY COMPOSITE 9

FIG. 5
Specimen in fixture used for
quasi-static fracture tests.

Experimental Procedures
QUASISTATIC FRACTURE TESTS
For the quasi-static fracture toughness, standard KIC tests were conducted on bend
specimens in an Instron 8872 servo-hydraulic testing machine, see Fig. 5. The load
versus displacement curve was recorded. Fracture toughness KIC was calculated
from the standard formula for the three-point bend specimen as presented in
Eqs 9.1 and 9.2. The geometry of specimens is as presented in the third section of
the paper.
The exact solution of the SIF values for this geometry was obtained from the
standard method ASTM E399-05 [16]

PQ S a

(9.1) KQ ¼ f
BW 3=2 W
rffiffiffiffiffi
a
a
3   a
2 
W a
a

f ¼ 1:99  2:15  3:93 þ 2:7

W a
a
3=2 W W W
2 1þ2 1
W W
(9.2)

where:
PQ ¼ the applied load,
S ¼ span between supports,
a ¼ the crack length,
W ¼ the width, and
B ¼ thickness of the specimen.
The SIF value is directly proportional to PQ. Equations 9.1 and 9.2 are originally
valid for isotropic materials in static regimes.

DYNAMIC FRACTURE TESTS

Figure 6 shows a schematic illustration of the impact bend test apparatus used for
the dynamic fracture experiments. The apparatus consists mainly of an air gun, a
projectile (striker bar), three Hopkinson pressure bars (one incident and two trans-
mitters), a velocity measuring device, and recording equipment. The pressure bars

Materials Performance and Characterization

MARTÍNEZ-FIGUEROA ET AL. ON PLAIN WEAVE CARBON-EPOXY COMPOSITE 10

FIG. 6 Diagram of the Hopkinson bar apparatus used for dynamic fracture toughness tests.

(1800 mm long) and the striker bar (156 mm long) were made of 19.05 mm diameter
high strength steel (Maraging C300). The bend specimen was placed between the
incident and transmitter bars so it is rapidly loaded to fracture in 3PB configuration.
The classical equation employed to obtain the incident bar’s tip velocity history can
be found in Ref. [17]

(10) V1 ¼ C0 ðei þ er Þ

where:
C0 ¼ the elastic wave speed of the pressure bars, and
ei and er ¼ incident and reflected pulses in the incident bar.
This approach allows for the obtaining of the incident bar’s tip velocity from the
strain pulses.
In the experiments, the strain pulses were monitored by means of strain gages
having a gage length of 1.6 mm (VISHAY CEA 06 062 UW 120) bonded in the inci-
dent and transmitter bars using M Bond 200 adhesive. The first strain gage was
located 900 mm from the impact end of the incident bar; the other two strain gages

FIG. 7 (a) Specimen between Hopkinson bars, strain gage placed on it. (b) Finite Element Model.

Materials Performance and Characterization

MARTÍNEZ-FIGUEROA ET AL. ON PLAIN WEAVE CARBON-EPOXY COMPOSITE 11

were placed 900 mm from the ends of the respective transmitter bars (see Fig. 6).
The strain gage placed on the specimen close to the notch tip was VISHAY CEA 13
032 UW 120 as shown in Fig. 7(a).
The output signals of the strain gages were conditioned by conditioners
VISHAY 2311, visualized and stored into an oscilloscope Agilent model Infiniium
5483, recorded at a sampling rate of 1 ls. The incident bar tip velocity was used for
the evaluation of the SIF evolution of the specimens through the FEAs presented in
the Finite Element Models section. Dynamic fracture toughness KID was determined
from the critical SIF at the onset of crack initiation using the strain gage placed in
the specimens, according to the criterion of Yokoyama [1]. The dynamic FEA in the
Dynamic FEA section is a simulation of this apparatus.

Results and Discussion

STATIC FEA: VALIDATION OF SPECIMEN GEOMETRY AND SIMPLIFIED
FORMS
The results of the static run are compared to an isotropic reference by Eqs 6 and 7.
This reference is presented for comparative purposes to illustrate the behavior of the
composite material. Given the specimen geometry and a load applied of 3KN, a SIF
of 50.2046 MPa*m0.5 is used to obtain an isotropic reference stress profile. The com-
parison is shown in Fig. 8.
The stress singularity is well followed by the direct nodal stress and the nodal
CTOD using the simplified form of 8; this supports the capacity of the specimen
geometry and mesh to behave according to LEFM. The direct stress approach is
about 5 % lower than the isotropic reference suggesting that the use of nodal CTOD
to predict the stress profile is more accurate than the direct FEA stress. The SIF is
directly related to rI by Eq 7 independently from the material elastic properties.
The nodal CTOD of the specimen is also plotted as a function of r. A hypotheti-
cal isotropic material whose elastic modulus is the averaged moduli from the actual
plain weave composite (E ¼ 51.578 GPa) is used to obtain a reference CTOD profile
to compare using Eq 6. Figure 9 presents this comparison.
The actual plain weave CTOD is considerably higher than the isotropic refer-
ence even when their stress profiles are very similar. The reason is the elastic con-
stant Ce: for the actual plain weave composite a value of 12.4425 GPa is obtained,

FIG. 8 Profiles of rI from (a) simplified form, equation 8 and (b) direct nodal results.

Materials Performance and Characterization

MARTÍNEZ-FIGUEROA ET AL. ON PLAIN WEAVE CARBON-EPOXY COMPOSITE 12

FIG. 9
CTOD from the FEA static run.

whereas the hypothetical isotropic material has 25.789 GPa. The constant Ce can be
considered as a measure of the material opposition to the opening of the crack, in
this case, these materials have a Ce ratio of roughly 2, so their CTOD ratio is inver-
sely around 0.5. This is because Eq 6 relates KI to the CTOD involving precisely the
appropriate value of Ce.

DYNAMIC FEA: SIF EVOLUTION

For the Dynamic FEA section, Fig. 10(a) shows the velocity histories of the incident
bar tip node and the specimen node in contact with it. The specimen’s node follows
exactly the speed of the bar tip until 420 ls since projectile impact, when it loses
contact moving forward from the bar. The compressive pulse reaching the specimen
does not create pulses in the transmitted bar because the specimen backs off before
touching the transmitted bar also around 420 ls since projectile impact and the
effect of this contact is weak, and as such the transmitted bar practically remains
unaffected as shown in Fig. 10(b). Consequently, beyond the contact point of the

FIG. 10 Comparison of velocities of specimen’s contact points to (a) the incident bar, (b) the transmitted bars.

Materials Performance and Characterization

MARTÍNEZ-FIGUEROA ET AL. ON PLAIN WEAVE CARBON-EPOXY COMPOSITE 13

FIG. 11
SIF evolutions for m1
experiment.

incident bar with the specimen, there is not a unidirectional medium for the incident
pulse to propagate. Instead, a dynamic event where loss of contact practically sets
the specimen in a one-point-bending condition is observed.
In order to clearly observe the effect of the incident and transmitted bars in the
specimen behavior, the bar tip velocity obtained from pulses of the first experiment
(designated m1) was applied to the incident bar tip nodes of the complete FEA
model (the Dynamic FEA section) and also to the nodes that received the static load
in the specimen alone model (the Static FEA section). The SIF evolutions are
obtained from nodal CTOD and stress according to Fig. 3 in both cases. The SIF
evolutions start to diverge at about 60 ls since the start of the input. This divergence
can be explained by the loss of contact that occurs in the complete model: the speci-
men moves forward with respect to the bar tip, bending more than the case of the
specimen alone model. This is illustrated in Fig. 11 where the “specimen” tags corre-
spond to the SIF evolutions from the specimen alone FEA model. In both cases, the
SIF evolution using the CTOD and rI are in good agreement.

FIG. 12
Curve oad-displacement for
quasi-static toughness
sample 2.

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MARTÍNEZ-FIGUEROA ET AL. ON PLAIN WEAVE CARBON-EPOXY COMPOSITE 14

QUASI-STATIC FRACTURE TOUGHNESS

A typical curve for the material tested is shown in Fig. 12. Tests were performed
under load control. According to the ASTM fracture toughness standard [16], a PQ
load value is determined from the intersection of the load–load line displacement
curve with a straight line of 95 % of the slope in the linear region. Such intersection
is also shown in Fig. 12. Values of PQ are used in Eq 9.1 to calculate KIC giving the
following results for two samples: 25.852 and 28.564 MPa*m0.5, the mean of these
values is 27.208 MPa*m0.5.

DYNAMIC FRACTURE TOUGHNESS

The location of the strain gage in the specimen is exactly in front of the crack tip as
shown in Fig. 7 so that the dynamic strain could be measured as close as possible to
the crack tip. The time of crack initiation, tc, is the instant where specimen strain
gage signal shows the first inflexion.
For the exercise illustrated in Fig. 11, it can be assumed that the use of the speci-
men alone FEA does not lead to erroneous KID calculation values if tc happens
before 60 ls since the pulse arrival to the incident bar’s tip.
However, the use of the complete FEA is proposed and presented next to make
sure that the interaction of the specimen with the Hopkinson bars is accounted. This
approach consists in the application of the incident pulse such as experimentally
obtained, in the central node coupled to its aligned nodes of the incident bar at
900 mm from the tip (actual strain gage position) as shown in Fig. 13. This strain
pulse is translated to force by using the classical approach in Ref. [17]

(11) Pi ¼ E0 A0 ei

FIG. 13 Schematic methodology of the dynamic SIF calculation for specimens tested.

Materials Performance and Characterization

MARTÍNEZ-FIGUEROA ET AL. ON PLAIN WEAVE CARBON-EPOXY COMPOSITE 15

FIG. 14
Stress Intensity Factor
evolutions from FEA simulation
of experiments.

where E0 and A0 are the bars’ Young modulus and cross-section area, respectively.
The time span of each simulation is 300 ls so the pulse arrives to the incident bar’s
tip (theoretically 186 ls since the incident pulse reaching the strain gage) and the
SIF evolution is well captured for the rest of the simulation. It is important to remark
that in this proposal, only the incident pulse is necessary to feed the FEA as the
reflected and transmitted pulses are consequences of the interaction with the
specimen.
If the time span is extended, it is possible to obtain the reflected and transmitted
pulses from the FEA simulation; for comparison purposes with experimental data,
for example. The experimental incident pulses registered for 7 experiments carried
were applied to the complete FEA and the SIF evolution followed and reported in
the Fig. 14 where it can be observed that very similar patterns in the SIF evolution
are obtained for the experiments. The loss of contact for all the specimens has been
confirmed; for the incident bar, it takes place between 241 and 249 ls from the pulse
arrival to the strain gage. For the transmitted bars, the back-off and weak return to
contact is also confirmed. This re-contact takes place between 235 and 240 ls for all
the specimens. When the specimen loses contact with the incident bar, it is already
regaining contact with the transmitted bars and the phenomenon of “free specimen”
is not present according to the FEA of these experiments. The labels m1, m5… in
Fig. 14 are the specimens’ designations.
Another advantage of this methodology is that there is no need to verify that the
time to fracture takes place before the effect of the loss of contact on the SIF evolu-
tion. For other materials, this could happen and the use of the incident bar tip speed
as input to the specimen alone could lead to erroneous KID values if tc is delayed
beyond the SIF deviation due to loss of contact. All the times to fracture were con-
firmed to happen before the loss of contact at interface 1. The disadvantage that this
method encounters is the relative expensiveness of the FEA computing resources,
and every experiment creates a large result file.
The results of the KID measurements are presented in Fig. 15. The quasi-static
fracture toughness is also shown for comparison. Dynamic fracture toughness values

Materials Performance and Characterization

MARTÍNEZ-FIGUEROA ET AL. ON PLAIN WEAVE CARBON-EPOXY COMPOSITE 16

FIG 15
Dynamic fracture toughness for
of carbon-epoxy plain weave
composite.

are lower than those for quasi-static toughness. An increment of KID is observed
when increasing the projectile velocity (associated with strain rate) for the range
between 10 and 14 m/s.

Conclusions
The dynamic fracture toughness of a carbon-epoxy plain weave composite has been
evaluated. The technique of the 3PB Hopkinson bars has been implemented. Simpli-
fied forms common to typical isotropic and transversely isotropic materials have
been used to relate the stress in front of the crack and the mode-I SIF to the CTOD,
then to validate the geometry and mesh of the specimens by a static FEA run.
The use of these forms and the specimen FEA has been extrapolated to the
dynamic tests. A complete FEA of the experimental arrangement has been run and
various important aspects have been remarked and discussed. Among them, the use
of the incident bar tip velocity to feed the specimen FEA is shown to be appropriate
as the specimen contact point follows the bar tip. However, an eventual loss of con-
tact has been observed not only in the transmitted bars but also in the incident bar.
This suggests that the specimens were subject to dynamic one-point-bending tests.
Due to this, the complete FEA is used for tests as it takes into account these
phenomena.
This proposal has the advantage of the need only of the incident pulse to be fed
to the FEA and the certainty of correct SIF evolution accounting the effect of loss of
contact with bars. The dynamic SIF calculations from the CTOD and the perpendic-
ular stress in front of the crack tip show a very good agreement.
Finally, the experimental results for a number of specimens show that the
dynamic fracture toughness for the material examined is lower than its static tough-
ness, whose mean value is 27.2 MPa*m0.5. The dynamic toughness ranges from
15.45 to 25.6 MPa*m0.5 in a projectile speed span between 10 and 20 m/s.

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Materials Performance and Characterization

MARTÍNEZ-FIGUEROA ET AL. ON PLAIN WEAVE CARBON-EPOXY COMPOSITE 17

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