Ballistic Performance and Damage Characteristics of Chemical Vapor Infiltration Quasi 3D-Cf/SiC Composites

To investigate the ballistic performance and damage characteristics of quasi threedimensional（3D） needle-punched Cf/SiC composites prepared by chemical vapor infiltration（CVI）,penetration experiments were conducted by using 7.62 mm armor piercing incendiary（API）.Macro and micro fracture morphologies were then observed on recycled targets.The results show that the protection coefficient of 3D Cf/SiC composites is 2.54.High porosity and many micro thermal stress cracks may directly lead to the lower ballistic performance.Flat fracture morphology was observed on the crater surface.The low dynamic fracture strength along layer direction may be attributed to the voids and microcracks caused by residual thermal stress.The damage characteristics of Cf/Si C composites include matrix cracking,fiber bundle cracking,interfacial debonding,fiber fracture,and fiber bundle pull-out.And interfacial debonding and fiber fracture may play major roles in energy absorption.

Damage Characteristic of Interpenetrating Phase Composites under Dynamic Loading

In order to investigate the damage characteristic of ceramic-metal interpenetrating phase composite（IPC） under dynamic loading, uniaxial dynamic compression was performed to characterize the failure of SiC/Al composite with 15% porosity using a modifi ed Split Hopkinson Pressure Bar（SHPB）. High speed photography was used to capture the failure procedure and set up the relationship between deformation and real stress. The deformation control technology was used to obtain collected samples in different deformations under dynamic loading. Micro CT technology was utilized to acquire real damage distribution of these specimens. Moreover, SEM was employed in comparing the damage characteristics in IPC. A summary of the available experimental results showed that IPC without lateral confi nement formed double cones. The different features compared with ceramic materials without restraint was shown to be the result of the lateral restraint effect provided by metal phase to ceramics skeleton.

EXPERIMENTAL STUDY ON DAMAGE TOLERANCE BEHAVIOUR OF COMPOSITE PANELS WITH SOFTENING STRIPS

In this paper an experimental study on damage tolerance behaviour of composite panels with softening strips is carried out. A prediction method of residual strength of panels with softening strips is proposed. The comparison between estimated and experimental results shows that the prediction method can be applied to design. In this paper the failure mechanisms are described.

Damage and Fracture Strength Behavior of Jointed Rockmass

The strength of rockmass from two aspects is analyzed.Firstly,the strength of the rockmass is mainly controlled by the critical stress value of rock,and the contribution of joints is to increase the effective stresses of rock and to decrease the damage strength of rockmass according to the macro damage mechanics of rockmass.Secondly,the strength of rockmass is mainly controlled by the fracture strength of joints.Based on the comprehensive analysis and comparison for the damage strength of rockmass and the fracture strength of joints,a composite damage theory of rockmass may be established.

In-service Structural Health Monitoring of a Full-scale Composite Horizontal Tail

In-service structural health monitoring（SHM） technologies are critical for the utilization of composite aircraft structures. We developed a Lamb wave-based in-service SHM technology using built-in piezoelectric actuator/sensor networks to monitor delamination extension in a full-scale composite horizontal tail. The in-service SHM technology combine of damage rapid monitoring（DRM） stage and damage imaging diagnosis（DID） stage allows for real-time monitoring and long term tracking of the structural integrity of composite aircraft structures. DRM stage using spearman rank correlation coeffi cient was introduced to generate a damage index which can be used to monitor the trend of damage extension. The DID stage based on canonical correlation analysis aimed at intuitively highlighting structural damage regions in two-dimensional images. The DRM and DID stages were trialed by an in-service SHM experiment of CFRP T-joint. Finally, the detection capability of the in-service SHM technology was verified in the SHM experiment of a full-scale composite horizontal tail. Experimental results show that the rapid monitoring method effectively monitors the damage occurrence and extension tendency in real time; damage imaging diagnosis results are consistent with those from the failure model of the composite horizontal tail structure.

Numerical Study on the Behaviour of Hybrid FRPs Reinforced RC Slabs Subjected to Blast Loads

The safety of civilian and military infrastructure is a concern due to an increase in explosive risks,which has led to a demand for high-strength civil infrastructure with improved energy absorption capacity.In this study,a Finite Element(FE)numerical model was developed to determine the effect of hybrid Fibre Reinforced Polymer(FRP)as a strengthening material on full-scale Reinforced Concrete(RC)slabs.The reinforcing materials under consideration were Carbon(CFRP)and Glass(GFRP)fibres,which were subjected to blast loads to determine the structural response.A laminated composite fabric material model was utilized to model the failure of composite,which facilitates the consideration of strain rate effects.The damaged area of the laminate is determined in the FE model,and it is in good agreement with the corresponding experimental results in the literature.Models containing different stacking sequences were built to demonstrate their efficiency in resisting blast loads.In general,the damaged area was reduced when a hybrid reinforcement with CFRP as the top layer was used.

Damage characteristics and constitutive modeling of the 2D C/Si C composite: Part I – Experiment and analysis

This paper reports an experimental investigation on the macroscopic mechanical behaviors and damage mechanisms of the plain-woven（2D） C/Si C composite under in-plane on- and offaxis loading conditions. Specimens with 15, 30, and 45 off-axis angles were prepared and tested under monotonic and incremental cyclic tension and compression loads. The obtained results were compared with those of uniaxial tension, compression, and shear specimens. The relationships between the damage modes and the stress state were analyzed based on scanning electronic microscopy（SEM） observations and acoustic emission（AE） data. The test results reveal the remarkable axial anisotropy and unilateral behavior of the material. The off-axis tension test results show that the material is fiber-dominant and the evolution rate of damage and inelastic strain is accelerated under the corresponding combined biaxial tension and shear loads. Due to the damage impediment effect of compression stress, compression specimens show higher mechanical properties and lower damage evolution rates than tension specimens with the same off-axis angle. Under cyclic tension–compression loadings, both on-axis and off-axis specimens exhibit progressive damage deactivation behaviors in the compression range, but with different deactivation rates.

Transient-Spatial Pattern Mining of Eddy Current Pulsed Thermography Using Wavelet Transform

Eddy current pulsed thermography（ECPT） is an emerging Non-destructive testing and evaluation（NDT E） technique, which uses hybrid eddy current and thermography NDT E techniques that enhances the detectability from their compensation. Currently, this technique is limited by the manual selection of proper contrast frames and the issue of improving the efficiency of defect detection of complex structure samples remains a challenge. In order to select a specific frame from transient thermal image sequences to maximize the contrast of thermal variation and defect pattern from complex structure samples, an energy driven approach to compute the coefficient energy of wavelet transform is proposed which has the potential of automatically selecting both optimal transient frame and spatial scale for defect detection using ECPT. According to analysis of the variation of different frequency component and the comparison study of the detection performance of different scale and wavelets, the frame at the end of heating phase is automatically selected as an optimal transient frame for defect detection. In addition, the detection capabilities of the complex structure samples can be enhanced through proper spatial scale and wavelet selection. The proposed method has successfully been applied to low speed impact damage detection of carbon fibre reinforced polymer（CFRP） composite as well as providing the guidance to improve the detectability of ECPT technique.

Use of fiber Bragg grating sensors for monitoring delamination damage propagation in glass-fiber reinforced composite structures

Embedded fiber Bragg grating（FBG）sensors have been widely used for damage monkoring of fiber composite structures for a few decades.However,many remaining engineering challenges have delayed FBG based in situ structural health monitoring（SHM）systems.One of the major problem associated with FBG based SHM system is the unavailability of reliable data processing algorithms.The present work details a study which has been undertaken for identification of delamination crack propagation in composite plate under fiber reinforced polymer（FRP）uniaxial loading.The strain measured by embedded FBG sensors closer to the crack tip was used to qualitatively and quantitatively analyze delamination damage propagation using recently proposed elasto-plastic model.Strain energy release rate was calculated and compared with the model prediction.The study has concluded that the delamination crack propagation in a FRP composite can be monitored successfully using an integral approach of FBG sensors measurements and the predictions of proposed elasto-plastic model.

Continuum damage mechanics based modeling progressive failure of woven-fabric composite laminate under low velocity impact

A continuum damage mechanics (CDM) meso-model was derived for both intraply and interply progressive failure behaviors of a 2D woven-fabric composite laminate under a transversely low velocity impact.An in-plane anisotropic damage constitutive model of a 2D woven composite ply was derived based on CDM within a thermodynamic framework,an elastic constitutive model with damage for the fibre directions and an elastic-plastic constitutive model with damage for the shear direction.The progressive failure behavior of a 2D woven composite ply is determined by the damage internal variables in different directions with appropriate damage evolution equations.The interface between two adjacent 2D woven composite plies with different ply orientations was modeled by a traction-separation law based interface element.An isotropic damage constitutive law with CDM properties was used for the interface element,and a damage surface which combines stress and fracture mechanics failure criteria was employed to derive the damage initiation and evolution for the mixed-mode delamination of the interface elements.Numerical analysis and experiments were both carried out on a 2D woven glass fibre/epoxy laminate.The simulation results are in agreement with the experimental counterparts,verifying the progressive failure model of a woven composite laminate.The proposed model will enhance the understanding of dynamic deformation and progressive failure behavior of composite laminate structures in the low velocity impact process.