Testing and simulation of a polypropylene-glass fibre reinforced woven composite on a wide range of strain-rates

Medium costs composites materials are good candidates to develop lightweight and economical shock absorber for the next generation of cars. In this context we are interested in characterising and modelling of Twintex a long glass fiber reinforced polypropylene. Testing will be carried with a standard tensile rig and an original layout using a crossbow/Hopkinson rig. A special attention is made to compression behaviour identification, often neglected but critical for crash absorber behaviour. The model will be checked on the testing specimen and its validity will be discussed