ICME Based Hierarchical Design Using Composite Materials for Automotive Structures

Abstract

Composite materials are increasingly being used in transport structures due to their higher specific stiffness and specific strength. They can also be molded relatively easily to achieve aerodynamic shapes. Fiber reinforced composites offer excellent energy absorption under crushing loads and hence are increasingly being used in safety and load bearing applications. Composite material characterization is a complicated task due to micro-scale non-homogeneity and its resulting anisotropy and is generally accomplished with expensive physical tests at coupon level. High fidelity computational models are increasingly being used to accurately establish the elastic as well as inelastic nonlinear behaviour due micro-damage and fracture. The fiber material and its architecture, resin selection and its curing process control the resulting composite properties. Draping of fabrics before resin infusion also leads to geometrical non-linearities in the structure. All these parameters in the above processes need to be tightly coupled and can be altered in turn to provide a maximum performance for a given application under certain loads. A multi-scale methodology to study global-local relations of materials can also be integrated in the entire process. In this paper, Integrated Computational Materials Engineering based hierarchical design process integrated with composite material selection and microstructure based material design is presented. This framework for design decisions is currently being integrated using a TCS PREMɅP framework developed in house.