Composite Material Modeling

Issue #8 - October 4th, 2007

Software Suite for Durability, Damage Tolerance, and Life Prediction
Augments FEA Solvers MSC Nastran*, ABAQUS, ANSYS & LS-DYNA

* Best Performance and Verified Solutions with MSC Nastran

This Week's Feature Composite Example

Composite Material Modeling with GENOA

Figure 1 - Example of Composite Configurations in GENOA Material Modeling

GENOA utilizes a composite micromechanics scheme to compute the mechanical and physical properties of a composite with 1-D, 2-D or 3-D fiber architecture (Figure 1). An illustration of the composite modeling procedure is shown in Figure 2 where stiffness and strength as well as physical properties of each type of reinforcement (e.g. filler, warp and/or through-thickness fiber) are separated into material directions based on fiber angles and contents. These are then combined with matrix properties and/or void contents to create composite unit cell properties. The modeled composite properties include 1) stiffness, 2) Poisson's ratios, 3) strengths, 4) coefficients of thermal expansion, 5) coefficients of hygral expansion, 6) heat conductivities, and 7) moisture diffusivities.

Figure 2 - GENOA's Micromechanics Modeling Procedure for Composites

This composite modeling technique is embedded in the GENOA structural Progressive Failure Analysis (GENOA-PFA) to evaluate both micro failure in the composite unit cell and the overall structural performance. A stand-alone composite property analyzer titled MCA is also presented in the GENOA software suite.

Figure 3 - Modeling the Three Composite Systems in the Army Combat Bridge Design Using the GENOA Composite Micromechanics Technique

GENOA predicted mechanical properties of three polymeric composite systems (a. tri-axial fabric, b. five harness satin weave and c. uni-axial tape carbon fiber reinforced EPON) used in the Army mobile combat bridge design [1, 2] are presented in Figure 3. The simulation results were verified with the Army's test data, which also established A-B base allowable using GENOA's probabilistic module.

Click here to receive demo and presentation of Composite Material Modeling.

References:

1. Ayman Mosallam, Frank Abdi, and Xiaofeng Su, "Virtual Testing And Progressive Failure Analysis Of ARMY COMPOSITE BRIDGE". SAMPE 2004, Long Beach, CA 2004.Click here to read technical publication.

2. Frank Abdi, Zhongyan Qian, Ayman Mosallam, Ramki Iyer, Jian-Juei Wang, Trent Logan, "Composite army bridges under fatigue cyclic loading". Journal of Society of Infrastructure Engineering (SIE), Taylor and Francis Publications, Vol 2, No 1. March, 2006, 63-73. Click here to read technical publication. 

Click here to read the full technical product data sheet of GENOA.

 

Did You Know?

Damage Progression throughout Finite Element Model

Unlike many Finite Element Solvers, GENOA accounts for damage progression throughout the model while simultaneously allowing the use of Virtual Crack Closure Technique (VCCT) and Discrete Cohesive Zone Modeling (DCZM) fracture analysis. This feature was recently demonstrated and verified with test data for a bonded three stringer panel.  For more information on this feature and trying out GENOA through our demos, please contact our sales at sales@ascgenoa.com.

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