Experimental Characterization of the Material Properties of T700GC/LMPAEK Thermoplastic Composites for LS-DYNA MAT 213 Modeling

The work in this report is focused on the development and execution of experimental frameworks to characterize the T700G/LM-PAEK thermoplastic composite material as required for progressive damage and failure analysis simulation and modeling in the MAT 213 material model. MAT 213 is a composite material model incorporated within the commercial transient dynamic finite element code LS-DYNA. MAT 213 requires scalar material properties such as moduli and Poisson’s ratios, complete sets of stress-strain curves in a tabulated format, and plasticity flow rule coefficients to properly conduct the simulations. The experimental data obtained from in-plane mechanical testing presented in this report were obtained using multiple experimental techniques at a variety of length scales (i.e., macroscopic, microscopic, and hybrid) and extensively utilized digital image correlation. The data obtained from this experimental program was successfully utilized to calibrate the deformation sub-model of MAT 213. The complete work described in this report will contribute to the development of a MAT 213 input deck that will facilitate high-fidelity simulations of high-velocity ballistic impacts in composite materials.