Predicting Nonlinear Response of Composite Structures Used In Hypersonic Flight Vehicles

Hypersonic flight vehicles capable of extended-duration operation must withstand extreme environments characterized by significant thermal, aerodynamic, and mechanical loading with often coupled interactions between the structure and its surrounding atmosphere. Because ceramic carbon-based composite materials are uniquely resilient at highly elevated temperatures, they will likely be central to the design of structural components, particularly acreage applications, to be used in future hypersonic systems. To improve upon the limited accuracy of current linear elastic analysis approaches, ATA Engineering, Inc. proposes to continue development of a modeling framework for the analysis of advanced composite materials and to implement it as an add-on to readily-available commercial finite element analysis software. This software toolset will efficiently quantify unknown material model parameters from a limited dataset containing significant scatter, accurately model the elastic and inelastic structural response of ceramic carbon-based composites, and simulate the nonlinear damage progression in small- and large- scale composite structures subject to extreme aerothermomechanical environments.Phase II will involve a verification and validation effort based on testing and analyzing material that is scheduled for use in future hypersonic vehicles at coupon, sub-component, and component levels, and integration of the material modeling tools within a validated multiphysics simulation framework for hypersonic vehicles.