High-Performance Composite Materials for Vehicle Construction: An Elastoplastic Analysis of Crack Propagation in a Unidirectional Composite,
Abstract
A method has been developed for predicting the strength of a unidirectional composite material in terms of its micromechanical response to an applied stress. It includes elastoplastic material behavior, local failure that initiates a crack, and propagation of the crack to cause total failure of the composite. A specific loading condition, transverse normal loading, has been selected for detailed analysis. It is often the transverse properties that limit the performance of the composite system. Therefore, this loading condition is of particular interest to composite materials technology because of the inherently low transverse strength of most high-performance composites. The basic principles of the theory of plasticity have been combined with a finite element numerical analysis technique. The result is a rigorous analysis procedure capable of accurately modeling the complex boundary-value problem being considered, an initial step toward the ultimate goal of accurately predicting the strength of a material. A complete digital computer program has been developed as part of the investigation, permitting the ready application of the analysis to practical engineering problems. Because the primary goal of the study was to develop a method of analysis and to write an associated computer program, only limited numerical results have been obtained to date. (Author, modified-PL)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Mar 01, 1973
- Accession Number
- AD0769867
Entities
People
- Donald F. Adams
Organizations
- RAND Corporation