Novel Multi-scale/Multi-physics Integrated Tool for the Prediction of Manufacturing-Induced Defects in Autoclave Composite Airframe Parts

A multi-scale/multi-physics integrated tool will be developed to virtually and qualitatively predict the manufacturing defects in structural thermoset polymer composites through a first-principles based approach. The chemo- and thermo- mechanical properties of the thermoset resin during the autoclave process will be characterized with a reactive force field full atomistic and coarse-grained molecular dynamics. A physics-based mapping between these atomistic properties and the actual autoclave processing parameters will be established through the response surface-based reduced order modeling techniques. Then this physics-based mapping will be adopted in the micro- and macro-continuum level analysis to predict fabrication-induced defects. Through this combined multi-scale/multi-physics approach, a macroscopic defect-distribution map will be created with the indication of defects occurrence of various types in composite product level; note that this information will serve as an initial manufacturing-induced material damage for further damage growth/interaction analysis via the XFEM approach. During the process, extensive verification and validation will be conducted to ensure the accuracy of the multi-scale/multi-physics integrated tool on predicting actual damage distributions. GEM has already secured commitments for technical, verification and validation supports from University of Colorado, Lockheed Martin, NRL, and NIAR for the success of the proposed work.