Composite structural parts have been successfully introduced in high performance industries. Nowadays, also lower performance, high volume production industries are looking for the application of composites in their products. Especially attractive are textile composites (woven, braided, etc.) because of their better drapability and higher resistance to out-of-plane and dynamic loads. Currently, however, extensive mechanical tests are needed to properly design a composite structure. This is a requirement the large volume industries typically do not have the resources nor the time for. Reducing the need for structural tests can only be done if reliable simulation techniques are available. Simulation techniques for fatigue loading are particularly interesting because products generally have to perform their function over a period of time. For the textile structural composites concerned in this paper, some notable modeling techniques have been developed over the past 15 years. These techniques are presented here and the state of the art is established together with insights for future development by comparing the state of the art with the modeling techniques for laminates from unidirectional (UD) laminae.

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The results of a low-velocity impact programme on both carbon/epoxy and glass/polyamide-6 composite laminates are compared to the results of quasi-static indentation. Cross-ply and quasiisotropic stacking sequences are impacted and quasi-static indentation tests are performed up to the same maximum displacement. The response of the laminates to both test methods is compared in terms of force-displacement behaviour, dissipated energy and resulting damage. Significant differences between low-velocity impact and quasi-static indentation are found for both material systems. It is therefore concluded that the test methods cannot be interchanged for material characterisation.

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