Shear-compression failure behavior of PMMA at different loading rates

Three different types of tests, i.e. uniaxial compression, shear and combined shear-compression have been conducted on PMMA (polymethyl methacrylate) at different loading rates in order to investigate its failure behavior under different loading conditions. The experiment results show that the material exhibits the rate-dependent failure and post-failure behavior. Macroscopic failure loci of PMMA were was determined experimentally in the shear-normal stress space. Further, a macroscopic failure criterion was proposed to predict the material's failure locus as a function of the loading rate. The capability of the failure criterion was examined by simulating the failure behavior of the material at different load rates. The simulation results revealed very good agreement between the experimental data and the responses determined from the proposed failure criterion.