Three-Dimensional Deformation and Life Prediction Methods for Ceramic Matrix Composite Components

Ceramic and Metal Composites Corporation (CMCC) will develop a numerical scheme for predicting the life of ceramic composite turbine engine components with generic 3D architectures. The code will be implemented as User Materials and User Elements within the ABAQUS finite element platform, thereby embedding the technology in a popular and sophisticated structural analysis tool widely used by OEMs. The program to be developed will extend the so-called Binary Model formulation: a computationally efficient dual-mesh finite element scheme that explicitly treats the 3D fiber architecture and the intervening matrix material. Associated constitutive laws will be devised for non-linear phenomena such as matrix microcracking, interfacial debonding and sliding, fiber bundle rupture, kink banding, creep deformation, fatigue and thermal degradation. Once calibrated, the program will be capable of predicting the distributions of stress, strain and temperature in components of arbitrarily complex shape. Validation tests will be performed on thermo-mechanically loaded sub-elements. When complete, OEM design engineers will have executed the program. The computational tool will be amenable to future enhancements to include increasingly complex phenomena such as combined creep/fatigue/environmental degradation.