Search results for " composite material"
showing 10 items of 33 documents
Cohesive Model for the Simulation of Crack Initiation and Propagation in Mixed-Mode I/II in Composite Materials
2019
A cohesive element able to connect and simulate crack growth between independently modeled finite element subdomains with non-matching meshes is proposed and validated. The approach is based on penalty constraints and has several advantages over conventional FE techniques in disconnecting two regions of a model during crack growth. The most important is the ability to release portion of the interface that are smaller than the local finite element length. Thus, the growth of delamination is not limited to advancing by releasing nodes of the FE model, which is a limitation common to the methods found in the literature. Furthermore, it is possible to vary the penalty parameter within the cohes…
A HYBRID VEM/BEM NUMERICAL TECHNIQUE FOR SIMULATING DAMAGE IN COMPOSITE MATERIALS
2021
Composite materials are nowadays widely used in the aerospace sector both for primary and secondary structures for their high mechanical properties and the ability to model them according to project needs. Therefore, accurately predicting material behaviour when subjected to operating loads is extremely important in making the design process more efficient. For this purpose, computational approaches based on continuum damage mechanics have been largely used to study the progressive loss of material integrity due to the propagation and coalescence of microscopic defects. In this contribution, a recently developed hybrid computational technique, which combines the Virtual Element Method (VEM)…
Coupling BEM and VEM for the Analysis of Composite Materials with Damage
2021
Numerical tools which are able to predict and explain the initiation and propagation of damage at the microscopic level in heterogeneous materials are of high interest for the analysis and design of modern materials. In this contribution, we report the application of a recently developed numerical scheme based on the coupling between the Virtual Element Method (VEM) and the Boundary Element Method (BEM) within the framework of continuum damage mechanics (CDM) to analyze the progressive loss of material integrity in heterogeneous materials with complex microstructures. VEM is a novel numerical technique that, allowing the use of general polygonal mesh elements, assures conspicuous simplific…
A hybrid virtual–boundary element formulation for heterogeneous materials
2021
Abstract In this work, a hybrid formulation based on the conjoined use of the recently developed Virtual Element Method (VEM) and the Boundary Element Method (BEM) is proposed for the effective computational analysis of multi-region domains, representative of heterogeneous materials. VEM has been recently developed as a generalisation of the Finite Element Method (FEM) and it allows the straightforward employment of elements of general polygonal shape, maintaining a high level of accuracy. For its inherent features, it allows the use of meshes of general topology, including non-convex elements. On the other hand, BEM is an effective technique for the numerical solution of sets of boundary i…
Simultaneous measurement of temperature and strain in glass fiber/epoxy composites by embedded fiber optic sensors: II. Post-cure testing
2007
In this paper the use of fiber optic sensors embedded into GFRP laminates for structural health monitoring of thermo-mechanical loads is presented. The proposed sensing system, consisting of two coupled fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensors, allows the simultaneous measurement of both temperature and strain by decoupling the change in reflected wavelength induced by temperature variations from that induced by either mechanical or apparent strain, with significant advantages either for monitoring the composite cure kinetics, as described in the accompanying paper (Part I), or for assessing the structural response to thermo-mechanical loads. Both thermal ramp and mechanical static/dynamic bending…
Water diffusion and swelling stresses in ionizing radiation cured epoxies as matrices for carbon fiber composites
2017
Cross-linking polymerization initiated by high energy radiation is a very attractive technique for the production of high performance composite materials. This method in fact offers many advantages compared to conventional thermal curing processes, due to the possibility to operate at mild temperature and in short time, limiting both energy and time consuming [1-2]. High performance composite materials mainly consist of epoxy resins as matrix and carbon fibers as reinforce, due to their excellent properties in terms of thermal and mechanical resistance. An important requirement of such systems for structural applications is their ability to maintain the properties within a fixed range durin…
RESIDUAL STRESS ANALYSIS OF ORTHOTROPIC MATERIALS BY THE THROUGH-HOLE DRILLING METHOD
2007
The present study deals with the development and the application of the through-hole drilling method for the residual stress analysis in orthotropic materials. Through a systematic theoretical study of the stress field present on orthotropic plates with a circular hole, the relationships between the relaxed strains measured by a rectangular strain gauge rosette and the Cartesian components of the unknown residual stresses are obtained. The theoretical formulas of each influence coefficient allow the user an easy application of the method to the analysis of uniform-residual stresses on a generic homogeneous orthotropic material. Furthermore, to extend the method to the analysis of the residu…
Three-Dimensional Strain Analysis of Single-Lap Bolted Joints in Thick Composites Using Fibre-Optic Gauges and the Finite-Element Method
2010
Bolted joints involving composite plates used to be almost entirely dedicated to aerospace applications. As the need for energy conservation has increased, the field of composite bolted joints has found new applications in ground armoured vehicles. Thick panels able to withstand large in-plane and impact loads are critical. The present investigation evaluates the interior strain field, through the thickness, of a composite plate connected to an aluminium panel with a single-lap bolted joint. The area of interest is the bearing plane region close to the hole because of the presence of stress concentrations that heavily modify the stress field. Experimental data for the bolted joint were rec…
Mechanical Properties of CNT/Polymer
2018
Abstract The high mechanical properties, the stiffness-to-weight and strength-to-weight make the carbon nanotubes a perfect reinforcing agents in advanced composites. This interesting potential has attracted the attention of both industry and academia that have committed to this research field an impressive amount of work. Several applications of carbon nanotubes enriched polymer composites have already been seen: aerospace structures, sporting goods, automotive components, medical devices, optical barriers, photovoltaic devices, conducting plastics, electromagnetic interference shielding, efficient electrostatic painting of plastics, composite mirrors, plastics with high thermal dissipatio…
Visual indicator for the detection of end-of-life criterion for composite high pressure vessels for hydrogen storage
2012
International audience; A model to predict the accumulation of fibre breaks in advanced composites, that takes into account all physical phenomena implicated in fibre failure (i.e. the random nature, stress transfer due to breaks, fibre debonding and viscosity of the matrix) shows clearly that the failure of a unidirectional composite structure results in the formation of random fibre breaks which at higher loads coalesce into clusters of broken fibres. This stage of development is followed almost immediately by failure. This has direct application to filament wound pressure vessels of the type used to store hydrogen under high pressure. A novel, cost effective, method of revealing developi…