FINITE ELEMENT MODELING AND STRESS DISTRIBUTION OF UNIDIRECTIONAL COMPOSITE MATERIALS UNDER TRANSVERSAL LOADING

Author

Pavan Agarwal

ORCID Identifier(s)

0000-0002-0436-8385

Graduation Semester and Year

2016

Language

English

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering

Department

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

First Advisor

Andrey Beyle

Abstract

Micromechanics of Composites analyze stresses inside any heterogeneous material. These stresses can not only be used for calculation of effective stiffness or compliance, but also for predicting strength and failure modes for these materials. This thesis is devoted to the stress analysis of unidirectional composites by finite element method. The key distinction from other finite element method modeling of the unidirectional composite was that the load on the cell was not prescribed, but was to be calculated taking into account the influence of the closest neighbors of the cell. Transversal unidirectional tension/compression and transversally symmetrical biaxial tension/compression were analyzed. In this project, two kinds of fiber materials were mainly focused upon namely; Carbon and E-glass. Here single cell and multi-cell models for cylindrical, square and hexagonal geometries were considered. The entire work was primarily focused on the cylindrical model since it constitutes the basic model in any mechanical industry. The models were experimented by taking different fiber volumes and applying relative pressure/loading to each. Stresses on the boundary were analyzed between the interface of fiber and matrix. Same was done with the multi-cell models, and analytical results were determined. Produced practical data was compared with analytical solutions for single cell and infinitely big regular array of inclusions in the matrix.

Keywords

Composite materials, Stress analysis

Disciplines

Aerospace Engineering | Engineering | Mechanical Engineering

License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License.

Comments

Degree granted by The University of Texas at Arlington

Recommended Citation

Agarwal, Pavan, "FINITE ELEMENT MODELING AND STRESS DISTRIBUTION OF UNIDIRECTIONAL COMPOSITE MATERIALS UNDER TRANSVERSAL LOADING" (2016). Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Theses. 720.
https://mavmatrix.uta.edu/mechaerospace_theses/720