Abstract

In the research of light weighting solutions, the use of CFRP has dramatically increased during the last two decades both in aerospace and automotive industries. However, designers are still facing the challenge to accelerate the insertion of new materials for applications. Traditionally, screening, characterization and even design of new materials is done by physical testing. However, composites materials offer an extraordinary choice of material combinations so that such traditional approaches become inefficient at best. Simulation accelerates these test campaigns, providing insights and answers well before physical coupons can be ordered, created, tested and reported. Tools, like DigimatTM propose a complete framework to conduct such simulations. This framework includes a continuum damage model to accurately capture the damage initiation and propagation that take place during the loading. Additional features are added to this model, such as cohesive elements to model the interface, in-situ strengths, mesh sensitivity control based on a crack-band method and effect of manufacturing stresses. On top of that, the platform proposes parameterized models of a large range of standard tests classically performed in the Aeronautics. This includes the classical in-plane properties (unnotched, open-hole, filled-hole, bearing and bending tests) but also the simulation of the compression after impact, where first, the damage after the impact can be predicted for a given energy level and, second, the residual strength is then computed. Finally, another aspect of the platform concerns how the analysis of the effects of defects such as out-of-ply waviness and presence of porosity on the coupon strength is addressed. The framework is applied on several coupon configurations with several aerospace composite grades.