Crash of 3D-braided thermoplastic tubes: numerical and analytical tools for behaviour prediction

Abstract

This article deals with the experiment and numerical simulation of the crash of composite tubes made of 2,5D-braided composite. First we present the material characterization at different strain rates as well as the results of tubes which have been tested in a drop-weight tower. In a second part, simple analytical tools results are described and their results are compared with experimental ones. In a third part, we describe the bi-phase material model which has been developed. It is based on Drozdov’s modelling for thermoplastic matrix and on the kinking modelling for fibers. Finally we present the experiment and numerical simulations correlations and we will conclude more particularly about the good predicting the value of energy absorption.