• Composites Research
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.154-161
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• 2023

This study explored the feasibility of replacing a metal link with a carbon fiber/epoxy composite link and assessed its capacity to withstand a given load condition using failure criteria. The micromechanics of failure (MMF) criterion was employed to predict the failure mode of the composite material, and mechanical tests were conducted to obtain reference strength parameters for MMF. The findings revealed that the stress distribution was concentrated near the hole, and weaknesses were found around the hole and at the end of the link under bending conditions. Based on the failure index, matrix tensile failure was predicted at the end of the link, and fiber compression failure occurred near the hole. The methods and results obtained from this study can provide valuable guidelines for assessing the safety of composite materials under specific load conditions when replacing metal parts with carbon fiber/epoxy composites to achieve weight reduction.

• Composites Research
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.10-16
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• 2011

Many tests are required to predict the fatigue life of composite laminates made of various materials and having different layup sequences. Aiming at reducing the number of tests, a methodology was presented in this paper to predict fatigue life of composite laminates based on fatigue life prediction of constituents, i.e. the fiber, matrix and interface, using micromechanics of failure. For matrix, the equivalent stress model which is generally used for isotropic materials was employed to take care of multi-axial fatigue loading. For fiber, a maximum stress model considering only stress along fiber direction was used. The critical plane model was introduced for the interface of the fiber and matrix, but fatigue life prediction was ignored for the interface since the interface fatigue strength was presumed high enough. The modified Goodman equation was utilized to take into account the mean stress effect. To check the validity of the theory, the fatigue life of three different GFRP laminates, UDT[$90^{\circ}2$], BX[${\pm}45^{\circ}$]S and TX[$0^{\circ}/{\pm}45^{\circ}$]S was examined experimentally. The comparison between predictions and test measurements showed good agreement.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.41 no.1
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• pp.17-24
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• 2013

In this paper, a micro-mechanical failure prediction program is developed based on SIFT (Strain Invariant Failure Theory) by using the multi-scale modeling method for fiber-reinforced composite materials. And the failure analysis are performed for open-hole composite laminate specimen in order to verify the developed program. First of all, the critical strain invariants are obtained through the tensile tests for three types of specimens. Also, the matrices of strain amplification factors are determined through the finite element analysis for micro-mechanical model, RVE (Representative Volume Element). Finally, the microscopic failure analysis is performed for the open-hole composite laminate specimen model by applying a failure load obtained from tensile test, and the predicted failure indices are evaluated for verification of the developed program.

• Composites Research
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.66-72
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• 2016

Porosity in polymer matrix composites increases rapidly during thermochemical decomposition at high temperatures. The generation of pores reduces elastic moduli and failure strengths of composite materials, and gas pressures in internal pores influence thermomechanical behaviors. In this paper, micromechanical finite element analysis is carried out by using two-dimensional representative volume elements for unidirectionally fiber-reinforced composites with porous matrix. According to the state of the pores, effective elastic moduli, poroelastic parameters and failure strengths of the overall composites are investigated in detail. In particular, it is confirmed that the failure strengths in the transvers and through-thickness directions are predicted much more weakly than the strength of nonpored matrix, and decrease consistently as the porosity of matrix increases.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.25 no.12
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• pp.1933-1943
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• 2001

A micromechanical model is presented for superplasticity in which heterogeneous microstructures are coupled with deformation behavior. The effects of initial distributions of grain size, and their evolutions on the mechanical properties can be predicted by the model. Alternative stress rate models such as Jaumann rate and rotation incremental rate have been employed to analyze uniaxial loading and simple shear problems and the appropriate modeling was studied on the basis of hypoelasticity and elasto-viscoplasticity. The model has been implemented into finite element software so that full process simulation can be carried out. Tests have been conducted on Ti-6Al-4V alloy and the microstructural features such as grain size, distributions of grain size, and volume fraction of each phase were examined for the materials that were tested at different strain rates. The experimentally observed stress-strain behavior on a range of initial grain size distributions has been shown to be correctly predicted. In addition, the effect of volume fraction of the phases and concurrent grain growth were analyzed. The dependence of failure strain on strain rate has been explained in terms of the change in mechanism of grain growth that occurs with changing strain rate.

• Journal of Aerospace System Engineering
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.35-42
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• 2022

This paper deals with predicting comparable mechanical properties of laminated composite plates. The stiffness of an equivalent anisotropic composite plate is derived based on classical lamination theory. A novel failure criterion is defined to describe the failure behaviour of laminated composite plates based on micro-mechanics failure criteria. Finally, the theory's validation of finite element analysis results was verified. We concluded that this theory is very suitable for failure analysis of laminated composite plates for aerospace applications due to their relative simplicity and computational efficiency.

• Composites Research
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.33-39
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• 2016

In this study, geometric modeling and finite element analysis of 3-dimensional plain weave composite unit cell consisting of 3 interlaced fiber tows and resin pocket were performed to predict effective properties. First, tow properties were obtained from micro-mechanics finite element unit cell analysis, which were then used in the meso-mechanics analysis. The effective properties were obtained from a series of unit cell analyses simulating uniaxial tensile and shear tests. Analysis results were compared to the analysis and experimental results in the literature. Various crimp angles were considered and the effect on the effective properties was investigated. Initial failure strengths and failure sequence were also examined.

• International Journal of Highway Engineering
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• v.4 no.3 s.13
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• pp.1-13
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• 2002

Design methods for new flexible pavements and overlays are in the transition from empirical to mechanistic approach, and many state highway agencies trend to move toward the adoption and use of mechanistic-empirical (M-E) design in new constructions and rehabilitations of flexible pavements. Hence, the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) decided to develop a M-E flexible pavement design procedure, in which major pavement distresses such as fatigue cracking and rutting are employed as indicators of the serviceability of a flexible pavement. The main concept of the developed design procedure is that a designed pavement that is supposed to carry a certain number of traffic must satisfy designated thresholds of rut depths and fatigue lives during a service period. For the M-E design procedure, transfer functions were developed to predict rut-depths and fatigue lives. These functions related the pavement responses to pavement performance. For validation, three current new flexible pavement design cases were obtained from the MDOT. In these cases, asphalt concrete (AC) layer thicknesses determined by the suggested M-E procedure compare favorably with those determined by the current MDOT design practice that is based on AASHTO design guide. This finding implies that the suggested Michigan M-E flexible pavement design procedure can provide a good opportunity to improve the current design practice.

• Composites Research
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.251-259
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• 2018

In this paper, statistical volume element modeling method was developed for multi-scale progressive failure analysis of fiber reinforced composite materials. Big-size statistical volume elements (BSVEs) was considered to minimize the size effect in the micro-scale, by including as many fibers as possible. For that purpose, a mesh cutting method is suggested and adapted into the fiber model generator that creates finite element domain rapidly. The fiber defect model was also developed based on the experimental distribution of the fiber strength. The size effects from the local load sharing (LLS) are evaluated by increasing the fiber inclusion in the micro-scale model. Finally, continuum damage mechanics (CDM) model to the fiber direction was extracted from numerical analysis on BSVEs. And it was compared with strength prediction from typical representative volume element (RVE) model.