MODELING TECHNIQUES FOR COMPOSITES SUBJECTED TO RAPID THERMAL LOADING

MISSION RESEARCH CORPORATION PROPOSES A SBIR PHASE I PROGRAM THAT WILL DETERMINE THE EFFECT OF RAPID THERMAL LOADING ON LAMINATED COMPOSITES IN THE PRESENCE OF DEBONDING OR DELAMINATIONS. EMPHASIS WILL BE GIVEN ON COUPLED THERMOELASTIC PROBLEMS SINCE RAPID THERMAL LOADING PRODUCES HIGH FREQUENCY THERMAL SHOCKS SO THAT THE TIME RATE OF VOLUMETRIC STRAIN IS, IN GENERAL, NOT SMALL COMPARED TO THE TIME RATE OF THE TEMPERATURE FIELD PRODUCED BY SUCH LOADING. EXTENSION OF THE ZONE OF DELAMINATION WILL BE ANALYZED USING THERMALLY DEPENDENT CRITICAL BOND TOUGHNESS CRITERION SO AS TO DETERMINE THE SURVIVABILITY OF THE COMPOSITE DURING THE APPLICATION OF THERMAL LOAD. EFFECTS OFMULTIPLE ZONES OF DEBONDING WILL BE INVESTIGATED IN THE LATER PHASE OF THEPROGRAM BY PAIRWISE INTERACTION TECHNIQUES TO STUDY THE FEASIBILITY OF LINKAGE OF TWO ZONES OF DELAMINATIONS. EXPERIMENTS WILL BE CONDUCTED DURING THE FOLLOW-ON PHASE II EFFORT TO DEMONSTRATE THE VALIDITY OF THE MODELS.