Influence of rate effects on delamination: From Crack Leap Shear tests to low-velocity impacts

This paper is devoted to the study of different aspects of rate effects in the case of delamination. Two rate dependent cohesive zone models are compared for which the shear rate dependency is identified using Crack Leap Shear experiments. For both models, the key factor appears to be the evolution of the critical energy release rate as function of the crack opening. Moreover, if for very low velocity (1 m/s) rate effects can be neglected, it is not the case for quite low velocity (10 m/s). In the case of a 16 plies quasi-isotropic plate for the size and the shape of the delamination are significantly influenced by the rate effects.