Fracture mechanical investigations and cohesive zone failure modelling on automotive composites

This paper presents the results of fracture mechanical tests on carbon reinforced composites. The evaluation of the experimental data leads directly to material properties for the further application in numerical crash simulations of automotive structures. If fibre bridging was detected within the composite’s failure surface, it could be quantitatively considered in the material input data for numerical simulations. The fracture mechanical tests have been conducted at two different velocities differing about several orders of magnitude to account for rate effects. Finally, the paper further presents a first validation of the extracted material models by the application of the identified material cards in numerical simulations.