On the tensile behaviour of CF and CFRP materials under high strain rates

The paper deals with dynamic tensile tests on Carbon Fibre Reinforced Polymer - CFRP laminates. As a result of their viscoelastic nature, plastics exhibit rate dependence in their stressstrain response. The need to develop failure criteria to determine the dynamic failure stress for composite material under dynamic loading conditions is a current challenge for the research community. The main goal of such paper is to assess the efficiency of the analytical models provided by literature to predict the strain-rate effects on composite coupons tensile strength. Moreover, experimental tests have been performed in order to evaluate the mechanical behaviour of different stacking sequences at different strain rate.