DUCTILE FAILURE OF A PLASTICIZED POLYVINYLCHLORIDE DURING AIR BAG DEPLOYMENT

The present work addresses the ductile fracture process of a plasticized Polyvinylchloride (PVC), constituting the skin of the dashboard, with the goal of ensuring the security of passengers for the automotive industry. Clamped single edge notch bending (SENB) specimens were used to characterize the mechanisms of crack initiation and propagation for the studied material. The ductile failure of the plasticized PVC, by using fracture mechanics tools, was characterized thanks to the exploitation of the experimental database associated with finite element simulation of the crack propagation.
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