Research Seminar- Teresa Fras, PhD DCs, ISL-French-German Research Institute of Saint-Louis (France)

Talk Overview: 

The presentation aims to show the complexity of phenomena analysed in the terminal ballistics. High-velocity ballistic impacts concern various projectile/target combinations, multi-material components and a variety of mechanisms occurring during target penetration and perforation. Several examples of different threat/target configurations are discussed, and the impact velocities varied between 50 m/s and 1500 m/s. Comprehension of the physical phenomena that occurred during an impact may be gained based on a precisely performed impact test supported by modern measurement and observation techniques. Analysis of microstructural changes may also provide insight into conditions leading to the deformation and failure of the examined configuration. The presented experimental results are complemented by the finite element method numerical analyses of threat–target interactions, which characterize material and dynamic properties of the structures involved in the impact. The modelling approach describes the visco-plastic behaviour of the deforming materials and the fracture onset and crack propagation. Computational methods, ballistic testing and dynamic characterisation of materials cannot separately lead to a better understanding of the mechanisms which govern the behaviour of materials and structures subjected to intense, impulsive loading. However, combining these approaches contributes to advances in understanding short-time response phenomena, resulting in optimised, lightweight designs capable of withstanding high-velocity impacts.

Speaker Bio:

Teresa Fras was granted a PhD from the Lorraine University (UL, France) and the AGH University of Science and Technology Krakow (Poland) in 2013. The thesis, awarded with the label “Doctor Europeus“, concerned the modelling of structures in complex yielding states. Since then, she has worked at the French-German Research Institute of Saint-Luis (ISL, France) in Protection against Kinetic and Explosive Threats, cooperating with governmental agencies, industrial partners, and academic institutions in defence and security. She has led several French and German Government Projects focused on protection systems against kinetic threats.

Since 2016, she has held a visiting researcher position at the Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich (ETH Zürich, Switzerland) and co-works with European laboratories from the univierties from France, Germany, Belgium and Poland in topics involving terminal ballistics, shock and impacts, dynamics of materials, experimental and numerical modelling of structures loaded dynamically. Her research stays at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Cambridge (MIT, USA)  were focused on the failure of Li-ion batteries perforated dynamically and anisotropic damage behavior in fiber-based materials. She provides lectures on terminal ballistics, mechanics of materials and experimental mechanics. She has co-advised three doctoral theses with the Lorraine University and the Technical University Darmstadt. In 2023, she was granted the habilitation degree based on the desideration ‘Modelling and description of the behaviour of engineering materials under impact loading’ from the Institute of Fundamental Technological Research Polish Academy of Sciences.

She regularly presents her works at international thematical conferences. She authored more than 50 conference and journal publications on mechanisms leading to the failure of structures due to dynamic loadings, impacts, and effects of a blast. She is a member of the  European Association of the Promotion of Research into Dynamic Behavior of Materials and its Applications (DYMAT), the Academy of Engineering (AIP) and the International Ballistic Society Member (IBS).