Residual Property Prediction for Damage Composite Structures

Compression After Impact (CAI) response is widely used for characterizing damage tolerance of aerospace grade composite materials in structural design. Since impact induced damage is not readily visible in many instances, quantification of residual stiffness and strength under different service conditions following impact is critical for ensuring structural safety until the component or the structure is inspected or repaired during a scheduled maintenance. The ultimate objective of this project is to develop and commercialize a validated, predictive capability for predicting impact damage initiation and growth as well as post-impact determination of residual strength of composite structures used in defense applications. The predictive tool based on peridynamic theory will quantify residual strength and failure modes under general loading conditions, especially compression after impact. This tool will also enable the designers to consider various laminate lay-ups without significant amount of material testing and characterization; thus, reduction in cost and design cycle time in order to use high performance material systems.