On the Compressive Response of Polymeric Cellular Materials.

This paper presents a series of compression tests performed on a variety of high performance lightweight cellular materials conventionally used in energy absorption applications. Compressive tests were performed over a range of strain rates with a universal testing machine and a single stage gas gun. Experimental results revealed a dependency of the mechanical properties on the polymeric precursor, density, infill topology and strain rates.

Understanding the Thickness Effect on the Tensile Strength Property of DyneemaHB26 Laminates.

In this study, an experimental and numerical investigation is presented on the effect of thickness and test rate within the pseudo static regime on the tensile properties of DyneemaHB26 laminates. A detailed experimental presentation on the tensile testing of different thickness is presented and highlights the commonly seen observation that the tensile strength of a laminate reduces as a function of the specimen thickness. To understand these experimental observations, a constitutive material model of the individual macro fibril is developed and applied to modelling the fibre and upscaling to the laminate.