Composite structures have been increasingly used in military applications for their high specific strength and stiffness, combined with low thermal and electromagnetic signature properties. In such applications, resistance to blast is an important criterion, yet studies comparing different choices of material in the same experimental set-up are scarce. This comparative experimental and numerical study investigates the enclosed blast response of quasi-isotropic carbon and glass fibre composite plates. The study was performed on both undamaged and pre-damaged plates to examine the notch-sensitivity of the composite plates under blast loading. Pre-damages were done with two symmetrically located holes, drilled or shot with fragment simulating projectiles. Results were benchmarked against prior findings for thin steel plates under identical loading conditions. Experimentally, the carbon fibre composite plates exhibited the highest blast resistance (measured by mass of the explosive charge at failure), followed by equal-mass steel plates, and equal-mass glass fibre composite plates. Notably, pre-damage caused a more pronounced reduction in blast resistance for steel plates than for carbon and glass fibre composite plates. Interestingly, composite plates with pre-shot and pre-drilled holes displayed comparable blast performance, suggesting insignificant notch-type dependence. Finally, a finite element simulation model was built and verified with experimental data, showing good overall agreement.

Delamination severely degrades the residual strength of glass-fibre-reinforced plastic (GFRP) laminates impacted by ballistic projectiles. This study introduces TopoPrior-UNet, a U-Net variant named for its novel loss function that embeds Topological Prior knowledge (specifically, a persistent-homology shape-prior loss to enforce the global topological structure of the damage, and a level-set active-contour loss to refine fuzzy boundaries) to segment multi-layer delamination images from a digital single lens reflex camera (DSLR). An initial set of 24 raw panel images was expanded to a 480-image set through three augmentation schemes, enabling learning under extreme data scarcity. Compared with a vanilla U-Net, TopoPrior-UNet improved mean Intersection-over-Union to 0.9832 (+9.9pp) and mean Dice to 0.9915 (+5.3pp), achieving the best scores across six metrics. These gains stem from jointly refining fuzzy boundaries and enforcing global ply topology, as corroborated by an ablation study. The trained model operates in quasi-real-time (i.e., inference in seconds per image) and requires only surface imagery, offering a cost-effective and rapid alternative to traditional NDT methods like X-ray or ultrasonic inspection, which often require minutes to hours for acquisition. Such rapid, non-destructive quantification of delamination extent lays the foundation for on-site residual-strength estimation and timely structural maintenance.

This study investigates the blast response of carbon fiber-reinforced polymers (CRFRP) in a closed barrel experiment. The plates are mounted on the side of a cylindrical barrel in which a spherical charge is fused. Both undamaged and plates with drilled holes are studied. Comparisons are made with results from a previous study using the same experimental setup for thin steel plates of equivalent surface weight. It is found that the undamaged carbon fiber plates can withstand blast from high explosive charges of 130 g, significantly higher than the 105 g sufficient for steel plates to fail. Introducing drilled holes into the plates, the CFRP plates failed for 110g of high explosive relative to 60g sufficient to rupture the steel plates.

Virtual testing of helmets using finite element (FE) analysis can be a valuable tool during product development. Still, its usefulness is limited by the quality of the constitutive model of the energy-absorbing material, usually foam. Built-in constitutive models in commercial FE software are developed for traditional linear compression loading. However, modern oblique test methods load the foam in combined compression and shear. Therefore, we aim to evaluate to what extent built-in constitutive models in commercial FE software can represent Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) foam during combined compression and shear loading (CCSL). EPS foam is tested experimentally in a newly developed test rig for CCSL (V-test). The response is compared against the simulation using three different constitutive models available in LS-DYNA (M83, M126, and M181). The models are assessed by their ability to capture the correct response, focusing on how well the continuum models can capture the phenomenological events seen in the experiments. The results show that the models perform well in compression, as expected. However, we point out limitations in the shear response and significant limitations in the unloading response, both important for oblique helmet testing. Due to these limitations, we conclude that the existing models are inadequate for accurately simulating oblique helmet impacts. There is a clear need to develop and implement new constitutive models focused on capturing CCSL including the unloading. Additionally, frictional sliding was found to substantially influence the measured response in the V-test method. Minimizing interface sliding is therefore critical for isolating the material behavior.

Composite materials with 3-dimensional (3D) reinforcement were manufactured and corresponding simulation models were created in parallel. The used simulation approach has earlier been shown to produce close to authentic geometrical representation of the yarn architecture in 3D reinforcement. It is shown that although the as-woven reinforcement pattern can be modelled quite reliably, significant distortion from the nominal fibre arrangement might take place later in manufacturing, primarily related to compression during moulding. Such effects have earlier received significant attention for composites with 2-dimensional reinforcement but not as much for their 3D counterparts. The yarns in the real and the simulated materials are studied and compared, and some of the discrepancies and the mechanisms behind are discussed. The distortions are partly attributed to the relatively sparse weave that allows yarns oriented in the through-thickness direction, in particular, to deviate from their original positions.

Composite sandwich materials provide high bending performance-to-weight ratios. However, these materials are vulnerable to impact damages which can drastically reduce their load-bearing capability. Presently there is a lack of standardised test methods for impact assessment. This study compares three different test methods for impact assessment; single skin compression after impact (CAI-SS), sandwich compression after impact (CAI-SW) and four-point bending-after-impact (BAI). The CAI-SS test method shows high compressive strength and strain at failure and the tesr is relatively easy to evaluate. For finite size plates with significant impact damage, the CAI-SS test method is recommended for post impact strength assessment. For large sandwich panels with relatively small impact damages the CAI-SW test method could be more relevant since it includes effects of panel asymmetry generated from the impact damage. The BAI test method may be recommended as an alternative to CAI but quite long specimens are required in order to assure compressive failure in the tested face-sheet, making the test both demanding and expensive. On the other hand, lower load levels are required to break the specimens and there is less need for precise machining during specimen manufacturing. A finite element model including progressive damage evolution was used to estimate the post impact strength. The simulations showed generally good agreement with the experiments. 

The use of 3D-woven composite materials has shown promising results. Along with weight-efficient stiffness and strength, they have demonstrated encouraging out of plane properties, damage tolerance and energy absorption capabilities. The widespread adoption of 3D-woven composites in industry however, requires the development of efficient computational models that can capture the material behaviour. The following work proposes a framework for modelling the mechanical response of 3D-woven composites on the macroscale. This flexible and thermodynamically consistent framework, decomposes the stress and strain tensors into two main parts motivated by the material architecture. The first is governed by the material behaviour along the reinforcement directions while the second is driven by shear behaviours. This division allows for the straightforward addition and modification of various inelastic phenomena observed in 3D-woven composites. In order to demonstrate the applicability of the framework, focus is given to predicting the material response of a 3D glass fibre reinforced epoxy composite. Prominent non-linearities are noted under shear loading and loading along the horizontal weft yarns. The behaviour under tensile loading along the weft yarns is captured using a Norton style viscoelasticity model. The non-linear shear response is introduced using a crystal plasticity inspired approach. Specifically, viscoelasticity is driven on localised slip planes defined by the material architecture. The viscous parameters are calibrated against experimental results and off axis tensile tests are used to validate the model.

A new insert concept that interlaces metal inserts into composite laminates has earlier been shown to improve the relatively poor bearing strength of holes in fibre reinforced polymer composites, and it is here further and more thoroughly investigated. The concept was invented to increase the efficiency of joints with mechanical fasteners in composite materials and this work presents experiments on double-bolt joints with inserts made of either stainless steel or a titanium (Ti) alloy. In particular the work compares different implementations of the insert concept by reinforcing one or two holes in double bolt joints, and the effect of using different metals in the inserts. Some complementary tests on pin-loaded specimens and open hole tensile specimens are also performed and compared, partly with results that were reported previously. Considerable improvements of the bearing load capacity are attained, i.e. 50%-60% for steel and 35%-45% for Ti, compared to references. The open-hole tensile strength is also improved considerably (almost 30%) when the holes are reinforced with Ti inserts. The fact that the inserts can improve not only the bearing strength but also the performance in open-hole tension implies that the Ti inserts bring nothing but positive effects to the strength of the joints. The test results from single-shear double-bolt specimens with inserts at one hole showed improved strengths of 30% and 20% for specimens with steel and Ti inserts, respectively. Finally, an impressive strength improvement of 40-45% is achieved for single-shear double-bolt specimens having both holes reinforced with inserts of either steel or Ti.

A new insert concept that interlaces metal inserts into composite laminates has earlier been shown to improve the relatively poor bearing strength of holes in fibre reinforced polymer composites, and it is here further and more thoroughly investigated. The concept was invented to increase the efficiency of joints with mechanical fasteners in composite materials and this work presents experiments on double bolt joints with inserts made of either stainless steel or a titanium (Ti) alloy. In particular the work compares different implementations of the insert concept by reinforcing one or two holes in double bolt joints, and the effect of using different metals in the inserts. Some complementary tests on pin-loaded specimens and open hole tensile specimens are also performed and compared, also with some results reported previously.                    Considerable improvements in the bearing load capacity, i.e. 50%-60% or 35%-45%, is attained. The open-hole tensile strength is also improved considerably (almost 30%)  when the holes are reinforced with Ti inserts. The fact that the inserts can improve not only the bearing strength but also the performance in open-hole tension implies that the Ti inserts bring nothing but positive effects to the strength of the joints. The test results from single-shear double-bolt specimens with inserts at one hole showed improved strengths of 30% and 20% for specimens with steel and Ti inserts, respectively. Finally, an impressive strength improvement of 40-45% is achieved for single-shear double-bolt specimens having both holes reinforced with inserts of either steel or Ti.

An insert concept for reinforcing bolt-holes with high strength metals was previously introduced by the authors, where inserts are anchored in composite laminates through interlacement of composite plies and thin metal patches. The resulting finger-joints must be strong enough to avoid composite-metal debonding happening before bearing failure at the bolt-hole. The strength of the composite-metal interfaces is thus crucial for successful implementation of the insert concept. The paper presents an experimental study investigating the strength of various interface geometries between a prepreg composite material and stainless steel or titanium alloy inserts. In addition to the experimental work, finite element simulations are performed to analyse the stresses at the interfaces. The results indicate that the stress concentrations at multi-material corner points govern the failure and that the strength can be enhanced by expedient design.