Dynamic shear fracture behaviors and “pseudo-plastic” constitutive model of carbon/carbon composite pins

•The shear failure stress of C/C composites increases with increasing strain rate.•Under quasi-static loading, the C/C composites damage with fibers fracture successively and the shear stress-strain curve shows a “pseudo-plastic” characteristic, while brittle fracture features subjected to dynamic loading.•A viscoelastic constitutive model incorporated with a damage model based on the Weibull distribution function is proposed.