Experimental and Numerical Simulation Strategies for the Prediction of the Macroscopic Behavior and Rupture of Structural Materials under Fast Dynamic Loadings

The presented research works have been done at ONERA – The French Aerospace Lab, in collaboration with many academic and industrial partners. They are aimed at improving the safety and protection of passengers and crew in aircraft transport, thanks to an increased resistance of structures and decrease of high energy impacts vulnerability. This paper gives an overview of recent progress made in the experimental and numerical fields to better predict the dynamic behavior and strength of primary structure materials. In this frame, the particular questions of the mechanical characterization and numerical modeling of behavior and damage laws, of crack initiation and propagation, and of failure (be it ductile or fragile) are addressed. The  described results concern both bulk materials (e.g., metals) and structured materials (e.g., composite laminates), at the macroscale level for the former and mesoscale level for the latter.