Date of Graduation

2016

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Type

MS

College

Statler College of Engineering and Mineral Resources

Department

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Committee Chair

Ever J Barbero

Committee Co-Chair

Marvin Cheng

Committee Member

Konstantinos A Sierros

Abstract

Prediction of damage initiation and Evolution in composite materials are of particu- lar importance for the design, production, certification, and monitoring of an increasingly large variety of structures. In this study a methodology is presented to calculate the mate- rial properties for the progressive damage analysis (PDA) and discrete damage mechanics (DDM) in ANSYS RTM by using two sets of experimental data for laminates [0 2/904]S and [0/+/-40 4/01/2]S. The type of laminates to be used for material property determination are chosen based on a sensitivity study.;This method is based on fitting results calculated with PDA and DDM to experimental data by using Design of Experiments and optimization tools in ANSYS Workbench. The method uses experimental modulus-reduction vs. strain data for only two laminates to fitt all the parameters of PDA (F 2t, F6, Gc tm ) and DDM (GIc, GIIc) . Fitted parameters are then used to predict and compare with the experimental behavior of other laminates with the same material system. Mesh sensitivity of both PDA and DDM is studied by performing p- and h-mesh refinement. Choice of damage activation function is justified based on goodness of fit with each proposed equation. Comparison between DDM and PDA predictions is shown.

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