Durability Modeling and Simulation of Composite Materials (MSC P 9053)

The use of multi-functional composite laminates, including lightweight composite armor panels is increasing on U.S. Army platforms. Future Army Light Tactical Vehicles (LTV), including the Joint Light Tactical vehicles (JLTV) will most likely contain lightweight, armored composite panels that offer significant weight reduction coupled with structural load carrying capability. This SBIR topic focuses on developing a composite material model and post-processing tool compatible with existing Finite Element Analysis software to account for durability failures and represents the composite mechanical properties. The Phase I work is broken into six tasks: 1) Computational Methods Development; 2) Formulation and Implementation of Failure Models; 3) Demonstration of Method for Representative Volume Element (RVE); 4) Fatigue Evaluation Method; 5) Integration with FEA Codes; and 6) Findings and recommendations. The work accomplished under this Phase I SBIR will demonstrate the fidelity of the developed mathematical models to actual test data, and validate the simple case material models as a precursor to developing a new composite material model and corresponding post-processor tools in Phase II.