Dynamic Characterization Methods for Composite Materials Systems

ABSTRACT:Karagozian and Case, Inc. (K&C) proposes to develop experimental methods and material models that can be used to safely and accurately extract the required fundamental properties of as-received composite SRM materials needed to understand their dynamic fragmentation characteristics. K&Cs proposed approach consists of: (1) designing a suite of experiments and measurements, using dynamic recovery methods, that can be used to dynamically fracture SRM cases under controllable loads and rates of deformation and measure their fragmentation properties; (2) developing analytic or numerical models or algorithms that can be used to correlate these fragmentation characteristics to fundamental material properties that can be obtained through non-destructive testing; (3) performing a set of limited proof-of-concept tests on a suitable material sample to demonstrate feasibility of our approach; and (4) augmenting our existing material and fragmentation models for quasi-brittle materials to accept the measured material properties and demonstrating their use in Computational Solid Dynamics (CSD) calculations of fractured composite SRM casings.BENEFIT:The proposed test and modeling methodology for material characterization and non-destructive testing are likely to find several non-military applications. The potential to combine the developed understanding of material fracture processes and the ability to predict them utilizing simple measurements from non-destructive techniques, including acoustic or laser sensors, would present a unique tool to assess the in-situ condition of various materials. For example, the inspection and condition monitoring of energy distribution networks and utility pipelines is a potentially large market, both in the US and overseas.