Structures Perspective for Strength and Fatigue Prognosis in Composites

Recent advances in understanding deformation and failure mechanisms of polymer-matrix composites used in rotor structures enable accurate and efficient measurement of material stiffness, strength, and fatigue characteristics based on testing small unidirectional laminate specimens. Successful failure predictions increased our confidence in the development of virtual test methods replacing some of the standard tests of multi-directional laminated composite materials with three-dimensional models accurately predicting deformation, damage topography, strength, and cycles to failure. However, the remaining key questions are related to the ability of transitioning the material scale virtual test information to larger composite structures. This work presents results of the feasibility assessment targeting the scaling of knowledge and methods acquired at the material scale, to larger structural elements.