Preliminary assessment of electrothermomagnetically loaded composite panel impact resistance/crack propagation with high-speed digital laser photography

This reports documents the baseline development of high-speed laser photography based assessment technique to determine effects of material resistance to puncture or fracture. A series of ballistic experiments were performed to at the Dynamic Event Imaging Laboratory at the Munitions Directorate, Air Force Research Laboratory site at Eglin, AFB, Florida. These experiments were performed, to assess the effectiveness of laser photography to document the formation and propagation,of cracks in composite materials with and without electromagnetic loading. These experiments were the first fully operational use of a novel and unique experimental capability for high-speed digital laser photography. This paper details the development of the experimental procedures and initial results of this exciting new tool. This report documents the experiments performed and the instrumentation developed along with recommendations for additional research.