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C. S. Lopes
IMDEA Materials Institute
Researcher
c/ Eric Kandel 2, 28906, Getafe, Madrid, Spain
claudiosaul.lopes@imdea.org
ABSTRACT
This paper proposes a systematic strategy to determine the mechanical behaviour of composite materials
up to failure using numerical and experimental approaches in parallel. A multiscale virtual design/testing
strategy is presented that takes into account the physical mechanisms of damage at the different length
scales, so the influence of the microstructure and loading conditions can be taken into account rigorously.
The multiscale approach describes systematically the material behaviour at different length scales from ply
to laminate to component level. One additional advantage of this bottom-up multiscale approach is that
changes in the properties of the constituents (fibre, matrices), the fibre architecture or laminate lay-up can
be easily incorporated to provide new predictions of the macroscopic behaviour of the composite under
impact. This approach is suitable for simulations of composite aircraft structures under general loading
conditions, and is expected to have a large impact on the design, testing and certification of aerospace
composite structures for damage resistance and tolerance.
Laminated Fiber-Reinforced Polymers (FRP) are nowadays extensively used in applications where
outstanding mechanical properties are necessary in combination with weight savings. Good examples can
be found in the Boeing 787 and the Airbus A350 that are the first airliners with fully composite fuselages,
manufactured with advanced automated technologies, and overall employ more than 50% of composites
by weight. Such materials are inherently brittle and usually exhibit a linear elastic response up to failure
with little or no plasticity. Thus, composite structures are vulnerable to damage and have to satisfy severe
certification procedures regarding damage resistance as well as damage tolerance. When suitably triggered
to fail by delamination and compression crushing, composites may exhibit high energy absorption and are
of interest for lightweight energy absorbing structural elements such as in the automotive industry.
However, the increased replacement of metals, which deform by means of relatively simple isotropic elasto-
plastic mechanisms, by composite materials has presented new challenges to aeronautical engineers. The
reasons for this are firstly related to the highly complex failure mechanisms of composite materials, but
also to the uncertainties introduced in the material properties by the manufacturing process. Due to this
lack of knowledge of the mechanical behaviour of these materials, the traditional way to tackle the problem
is through a combination of extensive and costly experimental campaigns and advanced computational
methods which involve mechanical characterization and ‘virtual testing’ throughout different levels of
details, from small coupons to panels, subcomponents up to the final global structure [1]. Nonlinear
numerical analysis based on the Finite Element (FE) method have been employed with great effect to
The process of coupling different FE analyses at different scales is commonly referred to by the term
‘multiscale analyses’. The traditional multiscale approach requires a prediction of the behaviour of a
complete structure (e.g. a wing or a fuselage) through a nonlinear FE model. This is then used to define
the driving boundary conditions for the next models at the more refined modelling scales [2], as shown in
Figure 1. Modelling detail is increased as successive analyses ‘zoom in’ on structural regions, identified as
being potentially strength-critical. The underlying principle is to maintain a consistent interface and link
between the different modelling scales used. In this global-to-local multiscale analysis approach, the high
level analysis results are used to predict zones of interest for more detailed analysis, so that at each
modelling scale the results are screened in order to identify regions for subsequent strength analysis in
more detail at a lower scale.
Figure 1. Traditional top-down multiscale analysis strategy adopted at the aerospace industry [2].
Advanced FRP structural components are made up of laminates which in turn are obtained by stacking
individual plies with different fibre orientation. This leads to three different entities (ply, laminate and
component) with three different characteristic length scales (fibre diameter, ply and laminate thickness,
respectively) arranged in a hierarchical fashion. Fibre diameters are of the order of 5-10 μm, while ply
thicknesses are in the range 100-300 μm and standard laminates are several mm in thickness and above.
Upon mechanical loading, different deformation and failure mechanisms take place simultaneously at the
three length scales. Within each ply, the main damage mechanisms depend on the load orientation with
respect to the fibres. If the ply is subjected to tensile stresses perpendicular to the fibres, matrix failure
leads to the formation of a crack perpendicular to the tensile axis [6], while if the ply is loaded in
compression perpendicular to the fibres, final failure occurs by formation of a shear band of localized plastic
deformation in the matrix across the ply [7]. Tensile loading parallel to the fibres leads to brittle fracture
controlled by the fibres while compression along the fibres induces failure by fibre kinking [8]. These failure
modes control the mechanical behaviour of unidirectional plies but other energy dissipation mechanisms
develop during deformation of multidirectional laminates made up by stacking unidirectional plies in
different orientations. They include multiple cracking of the plies parallel to the fibres as well as fibre
bridging, followed by fibre fracture and pull-out, which increase dramatically the energy dissipated during
Figure 2. Local-to-global multiscale simulation strategy to carry out virtual mechanical tests of composite materials
that explores the hierarchical structure of composite materials [1,9].
The aim of this strategy is to reduce the number of tests necessary to fully characterize composite materials
by experimental campaigns, and provide extended information about their failure mechanisms and
mechanical properties that could be used to build sound constitutive models adequate for higher scales of
analysis. To this end, the test pyramid is extended at the base by including additional testing at the material
constituent level and micromechanical models are used to obtain ply properties used at different scales of
observation, as shown in Figure 3. Moreover, within the micromechanics framework, experimental
conditions rather difficult to impose experimentally in the mechanical test lab, such as biaxial or triaxial
stress states, are possible to be reproduced. This further enhances the development and tuning of physically
sound failure criteria. The relevant features of this strategy, which has been previously validated [1], are
given bellow.
Figure 5: (a) Schematic of the push-in test. (b) Load-displacement curve resulting from a push-in test. The inserts
show the progressive fibre/matrix debonding during the test. (c) Shear stress-displacement curve during the push-
out test showing the different stages: plate bending, elastic fibre deformation and fibre push-out. The inserts show
the front and the back sides of the plate after the test.
(b)
Figure 6: Micromechanical simulation of AS4/8552 ply behaviour. a) Transverse tensile and transverse compressive
behaviour. b) Predicted failure envelope for an AS4/8552 ply subjected to combined transversal tension/compression
and in-plane shear loads. The numerical results are compared with the Puck failure criteria [25].
Figure 7. Schematic of computational mesomechanics approach to simulate the behaviour of composite laminates.
Damage by interply decohesion in these models is included by means of a cohesive crack model coupled
with interface elements (or surface contacts) between the ply surfaces [21] following a similar approach to
that used to simulate decohesion at the fibre-matrix interface in computational micromechanics [22, 15-
20, 23] (Figure 8). The interply properties (normal and shear interply strength as well as mode I and mode
II fracture toughness) can be obtained from standard mechanical tests [24].
(a)
Figure 8: (a) Interface element notation. (b) Constitutive equation for the cohesive crack under mixed-mode loading.
Intraply damage is more difficult to simulate as the plies are modelled as transversally isotropic,
homogeneous solids but different physical damage modes develop as a function of loading orientation and
sign. The elastic ply properties are easily obtained from the fibre and matrix elastic constants and volume
fraction from standard homogenization models. The onset of damage is predicted by the failure surface,
which can be obtained from numerical simulations based on computational micromechanics [22, 15-20,
23], as described in the above, or from experimentally-validated phenomenological models [25-28]. In this
way, the combination of stresses which leads to the initiation of damage and the particular damage mode
activated (matrix cracking, fibre kinking, etc.) is known. Nevertheless, laminate failure is not always
associated with the initiation of damage and the accurate prediction of the maximum load-bearing capacity
requires computing the evolution of damage, including the interaction among the different physical failure
modes. This is a very complex problem and successful, accurate results were obtained through the
CEAS 2015 paper no. 77 Page | 8
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution International License (CC BY). Copyright © 2015 by author(s).
application of different approaches, either modelling discrete cracks by means of X-FEM techniques [29] or
simulating smeared damage by means of Continuum Damage Mechanics (CDM). In both cases, the onset
of damage is dictated by the failure surface while the fracture energy associated to the crack propagation
can be obtained by means of computational micromechanics [6] or from mechanical tests [30, 31].
Within the CDM framework, damage is assumed to develop by the formation of homogeneous distributions
of microcracks and is characterized by damage variables d i which stand for the areal density of microcracks
for each damage mode. The constitutive behaviour of orthotropic materials is schematically represented in
Figure 9 (in simplified form) and can be expressed mathematically as
1 21 31
1 d E 0 0 0
E2 E3
1 1 1
12 1 32
0 0 0
1 E1 1 d 2 2 E2 E3 1
23
2
1
2 13 0 0 0
3 E1 E2 1 d3 3 E3 3
23 1 23
0 0 0 0 0
31 1 d 4 23 G23
31
12 1 12
0 0 0 0 0
1 d5 13 G31
1
0 0 0 0 0
1 d 6 12 G12
wherein Ei and Gij are the elastic moduli of the undamaged material. For each loading direction, the
response of the material is initially elastic up to a strain 0 d 0 at which damage starts to grow until
complete fracture occurs at f d 1 . The damage variables control the evolution of damage and may
depend on any internal variable (such as stress, strain, elastic energy, etc.). The area under the stress-
strain curve is the energy spent during failure per unit of volume. This framework has been developed by
different authors to model the mechanical performance of an orthotropic ply taking into account the
different intraply failure mechanisms [32-34]. Continuum damage models have been implemented in either
implicit or explicit finite element codes and, in combination with interface cohesive laws to simulate interply
decohesion, they have been used to simulate the mechanical behaviour of laminates under impact [35-38],
among other cases.
Figure 9. Stress-strain curve and damage evolution law for each damage mode according to CDM.
As an example of the application of the computational mesomechanics approach, the simulation of the
standard ASTM (American Society for Testing and Materials) ´in-plane shear test´ [39] on an AS4/8552
coupon of [±45]2s configuration has been performed. The results regarding matrix cracking and
delamination, as compared with observations performed by X-Ray computed micro-tomography, are show
in Figure 10. Matrix cracks are simulated in a physically-sound way, parallel to the fibre directions in each
Figure 10. In-plane shear test on an AS4/8552 coupon of [±45]2s configuration. a) X-Ray micro-tomography
observations of matrix cracking and delamination. b) Simulated matrix cracking and interply delamination (in blue).
Figure 11. Simulated (left) and experimented (right) damage on open-hole compression test coupons (AS4/8552
material system with staking sequence [+45/0-45/90]2s).
The predicted behaviour of AS4/8552 samples under Drop-Weight Impact is represented in Figure 12 [38].
The FE models simulate the geometry and boundary conditions indicated by the standard ASTM drop-
weight impact test [41] and represented in Figure 12a). Figure 12b) depicts the simulated specimen
deformations at maximum impactor penetration for four impact energy levels. It is seen that the damage
heavily increases from an impact at 19.7J to one at 50.8J. At 19.7J only blackface fibre splitting in the
centre of the specimen is visible. At 29.7J and 39.4J the fibre splits are extended towards the edges of the
specimens and some splits entirely separate from them. At these energies damage to the inner plies become
visible, both in the form of matrix cracks and fibre breakage. At 50.8J the impactor perforates the specimen.
(b)
Figure 12. Virtual testing of Drop-Weight Impact. (a) Standard test setup defined by the ASTM test standard. (b) Fibre
and matrix damage resulting from impacts at several energy levels on [-45/0/45/90]4s AS4/8552 samples.
An example of the computational mechanics approach, Figure 14 shows the simulation of a bird strike at
170 m/s on the leading edge of a horizontal tail plane [42]. The simplified bird model was discretized using
an Eulerian mesh with solid elements. The leading edge and the reinforcing ribs were discretized using a
Lagragian mesh with shell elements with one integration point per ply. The possibility of decohesion
between the ribs and the leading edge was taken into account. The contour plot of damage by fibre fracture
in the leading edge and in the ribs is shown in Figure 14 at the instant of maximum deformation. The
simulations are in good agreement with the experimental results and the information provided in terms of
damage accumulation was very useful to assess the localization of damage during impact and design the
laminate lay-up as well as the geometry in order to optimize the structural behaviour.
d1
1.0
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0.0
Figure 14. Simulation of 170 m/s bird impact on a rib-stiffened composite leading edge. Contour plot of damage by
fiber fracture is represented.
Computational mechanics is also the right framework to be used in the design of novel composite structures
for buckling, damage and failure. Figure 15 shows the predictions of pre- and post-buckling progressive
failure analyses of variable-stiffness panels that are produced by tow-steering with automated fibre
placement systems [43]. The simulations can accurately predict buckling, mode change, damage
accumulation and final failure of the 508mm by 381mm panel specimens manufactured with the AS4/9773
composite system, and confirm the superior structural performance of variable-stiffness panels.
Figure 15. Computational mechanics simulation of post-buckling failure of 508mm by 381mm variable-stiffness
panels manufactured according to two techniques: tow-dropping and tow-overlapping.
The outlined multiscale modelling strategy is promoting a substantial improvement on the understanding
of the mechanical behaviour of composites. This new set of tools is expected to have a large impact on the
efficient design, testing and certification of composite structures in aerospace because it will open the door
to the industrial implementation of virtual design and virtual testing strategies. The multiscale approach
will allow the introduction of the knowledge of materials at the constituent level (fibre, resin, interface,
fibre architecture) in the design process of new composite components. The influence of the properties of
the constituents, which are function of cure cycle and material conditioning, on the mechanical performance
distribution of composite materials can be easily and rapidly assessed. This will lead to more efficient and
rapidly obtained designs, reduce uncertainty, accelerate materials development, transform the engineering
design optimization process and unify design and manufacturing. In addition, high-fidelity simulations will
5 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The research leading to these results has received funding from the VIRTEST project, a collaboration
between IMDEA Materials and Fokker Aerostructures B.V., and from the European Union’s 7th Framework
Programme for the Cleansky Joint Technology Initiative under grant agreement n. 632438 (GRA-01-053) -
CRASHING project.
6 REFERENCES