On the behavior of stress waves in composite materials—II. Theoretical and experimental studies on the effects of constituent debonding

The theory derived in Part I is compared to data obtained from flyer-plate experiments on laminated composites. The composites were constructed of alternating layers of aluminum and polymethyl methacrylate. Impact occurred on a flat plane oriented perpendicular to the interface planes of the composite constituents. As opposed to the behavior of a fully bonded composite which allows only one longitudinal stress wave to propagate through its interior, two longitudinal stress waves were observed in the debonded composite.Reasonable agreement was achieved in the comparisons of theory to experiment after adjustment was made for the effect of residual bond strength at the constituent interfaces.