LAUSR

Woven fabric thermoplastic composites possess high specific strength and stiffness along with thermoformability. To utilize the full potential of these materials to achieve better crash-safe designs in automotive structural parts, their crash behavior must be predicted accurately. For reliable crash simulations, strain rate-dependent material data and equally capable material modeling are required. In this study, quasi-static and high-speed tests are carried out to measure tensile and in-plane shear properties. A strain rate-dependent continuum damage mechanics model is formulated to describe the deformation and damage behavior of woven glass fabric composites. Tensile and in-plane shear tests on a lab scale are used to calibrate the material parameters of the model. The model was implemented as a user-defined material subroutine (VUMAT) for Abaqus. Experimental results from coupon tests were used to verify the results of a single-element simulation. Finally, a structural level dynamic crash test of a u-profile on a drop tower was used to validate the predictions of the user material model.