ABSTRACT
It is well known that impact and dynamic damage evolution may severely impair the structural performance of carbon fibre/epoxy laminates. Faced with the inability to predict the initiation and evolution of such damage accurately, designers of aircraft composite structures must be satisfied with conservative dimensions which do not fully utilize the material’s specific stiffness. The problem is challenged by a host of analytical and numerical approaches which attempt to predict damage [1–4] but progress is hampered. Despite a few notable experimental and phenomenological studies [5,6], fundamental rate-dependent fracture behaviour is not well understood and material data remain in shortage. A further review of the literature in this area is given by Thesken [7].
