With the advantages such as high stiffness, fracture toughness, delamination resistance, and a high threshold for damage tolerance, woven fibers composites are widely used in load-bearing and impact resistance applications. Due to the complexity of the woven composite’s geometry, it is hard to establish…
Stress field prediction in the field of computational solid mechanics using deep learning is an ongoing topic of research. We consider a 2-d fiber-reinforced matrix composite plate where the constituent materials (fiber and matrix) are linear and elastic. When the plate is subjected to…
Composite materials and structures made of ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMwPE) are widely used in ballistic impact applications due to their high specific strength and stiffness. However, real world structures could have a curvature and it is important to understand their mechanical behaviour. Although…
Materials with network-like microstructure, including polymers, are the backbone for many natural and human-made materials such as gels, biological tissues, metamaterials, and rubbers. Fracture processes in these networked materials are intrinsically multiscale, and it is computationally prohibitive to adopt a fully discrete approach for…
UHMWPE composites have been widely used in ballistic protection systems due to their exceptional properties, which combine low density and high strength. This work develops a RVE-based finite element (FE) model to understand how the microstructure of such composites affects the overall mechanical behaviour…
Sizing emulsions are key in stabilization of glass fibers for use in the fiber-reinforced composites that continue to enjoy rapid growth in applications. To tailor composites with enhanced performance, it is necessary to understand the chemistries that determine sizing emulsion performance, including the epoxy…
UHMWPE (Ultra-High Molecular Weight Polyethylene) composites are commonly utilized as a protective material against fragments and projectiles due to the high specific toughness and high longitudinal wave speed of their constituent fibers. They are composed of UHMWPE fibers and a sparse thermoplastic elastomeric matrix,…
It is widely accepted that the overall composite properties are influenced by the fiber/matrix interface. By changing the interface chemistry and architecture, one can manipulate the fiber/matrix interaction, failure mode, and the macroscopic properties. Fiber manufacturers apply a sizing package to protect the fibers…
In this study, we are developing Mixed-Mode traction-separation response of fiber-matrix interphase in the presence of monolayer glycidoxypropyltrimethoxy silane (GPS) using all-atom molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. To develop the atomistic model, first we deposit GPS molecules on the silica (fiber) surface at different number…
Predicting the rate-dependent non-linear progressing damage behavior of unidirectional composites from the rate dependent properties of the constituents will enable computational materials-by-design and provide the fundamental understanding of the energy dissipating damage mechanisms. In this study, three micromechanical finite element model of unidirectional glass-epoxy…
